A climate mantle is a multifunctional nature-and-farmland landscape around a nature area, in which climate resilience and nature carry equal weight. Climate resilience here means absorbing both flooding and drought in a natural way. Nature means more diversity of flora and fauna, less pressure from fertiliser and pesticides, and more room for herbs and natural vegetation.
The mantle lies as a blue-green veined zone around the core of the nature area. From the outside inwards the emphasis shifts gradually from agricultural use to nature, instead of a hard boundary between field and reserve. That soft transition damps the influence of surrounding land use on the nature area and at the same time creates room to store water.
The term comes from Dutch landscape planning; the Dutch word is klimaatmantel.
Where it applies
- Transition zones around nature areas — reducing the effect of fertilising, drainage and drying-out on the core of the area
- Water storage in the rural landscape — the zone can temporarily hold water that would otherwise cause damage downstream
- Countering drought — higher groundwater levels in the mantle keep the nature area wetter through dry summers
- Extensive and nature-inclusive farming — herb-rich grassland, field margins, hedgerows and ponds
- Recreation and landscape quality — walking and cycling routes along the edge of the area
Points to watch
- What it is not — a climate mantle is a planning and design concept from landscape development, not a building element; do not confuse it with a building envelope
- Difference from a climate buffer — a climate buffer is any feature that absorbs peaks, from a swale in a garden to an entire wetland; the climate mantle is specifically the zone around a nature area in which nature and climate advance together
- A long horizon — land acquisition, water level management and agreements with land users make this a project measured in years, not seasons
- Water level is decisive — without adjusting the water regime a mantle exists only on paper; the gain lies in the hydrology
Related terms
- Climate buffer
- Climate-adaptive building
- Infiltration
- Zoning plan
- Green roof
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