Together with the rapid industrialization of the world, urbanization is also uncontrollably increasing. Such an increase in urbanization exerts the greatest pressure on natural resources, obligating people to live in intense structural spaces and increasing the need for green spaces in cities. Because of the expensive costs of horizontal surfaces being “green”, urban places are faced with serious green-infrastructure problems. In recent years, alternatives have been searched for to eliminate such deficiencies. These alternatives, such as rain gardens, green walls (GWs), ecological designs, and green roofs, are commonly included in urban landscape designs. Besides rocky or steep-slope natural green walls (NGWs), natural green covers over buildings, walls, and so forth, structural members are also encountered in urban or rural places. On the other hand, artificial green walls (AGWs) have recently been used as a significant component of urban design. Although the AGWs are able to address various functional needs, they have not yet gained the desired popularity because of construction costs, static loads, constructional damages, and maintenance costs. In addition, such sites are largely left to exotic species with limited ecological requirements; these species are far from meeting ecological functions and resistance to extreme conditions. This study was conducted for a benchmarking assessment of artificial and natural green walls (A&NGWs) with a high potential in urban landscape design not only for esthetics, but also for ecological and economical purposes. Plant species, initial establishment, maintenance costs, and some other parameters of selected GWs were assessed. The study was considered as pioneering research for low-cost minimum-maintenance AGWs to be included in urban landscape designs. It was concluded, on the basis of the present findings, that the GW systems established with natural plant species, rock, and other materials already existing in natural landscapes could be constructed at fairly low costs, and such wall systems could have great ecological contributions.

This study analyses the decrease in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks due to changes in land use following the earthquake in Düzce, Turkey, 1999. The primary objective of the study is to determine the changes in land use within Düzce and to provide a multi-dimensional approach to the spatial and quantitative distributions of SOC losses. Corine Land Use- Land Cover (LULC) within the study is used to determine the change in land use. The loss of LULC and carbon stocks were identified by means of LULC with transfer matrix method and GIS-based analysis. The study of land-use change caused by urbanisation and agricultural activity shows that the limited green spaces around the urban core created by degrading natural areas do not compensate for the loss of SOC. SOC stocks decline after the land use changes from agricultural regions to artificial areas (− 5%), Natural- Semi-natural (N-SN) regions to artificial areas (− 15%), N-SN areas to agricultural areas (− 20.9%) and agricultural areas to water bodies (− 9%), and SOC stocks increase after land use changes from artificial areas to N-SN areas (+ 29.6%), artificial areas to agricultural areas (+ 8%), agricultural areas to N-SN areas (+ 25%). However, in some agricultural areas, SOC stocks are similar to semi-natural and natural areas. For instance, in sparsely vegetated areas, SOC stocks from fruit and berry plantations may be poor. Although it is generally assumed that SOC loss can occur on land transformed from natural areas, this rule of thumb may be revised in some particular circumstances. Therefore, local ecological restoration decisions should not be based on land cover generalisations.

Vertical garden systems represent an innovative approach that simulates rocky habitats, which are often characterized by high species diversity and endemism. In this study, we experimentally evaluated the performance of two vertical garden systems as an ex situ conservation strategy to ensure the sustainability of Seseli resinosum, a local endemic species of Düzce Province. In the first phase of this four-stage study, S. resinosum was monitored in its natural ecosystem for one vegetation period, and relevant data were collected. In the second phase, the species was collected and cultivated under controlled conditions. During the third and fourth phases, individuals were transplanted into two different vertical garden modules, where subsequent monitoring was conducted. Ecological trait analyses revealed that S. resinosum exhibits strong similarities with rocky-habitat species such as Hypericum perforatum, Silene italica, and Scabiosa columbaria, and Origanum vulgare. The results demonstrated that felt-based systems are unsuitable for the ex situ conservation of S. resinosum due to insufficient moisture retention and thermal buffering. In contrast, pot-based vertical garden systems supported successful vegetative and reproductive development. These findings indicate that modular pot-based vertical systems should be preferred over felt-based designs for the ex situ conservation of endemic drought-tolerant species under comparable changing climatic conditions.