| Urban sustainability presents intertwined challenges of environmental integrity, economic viability, and social equity. Sustainable cities need to incorporate social, economic, and environmental aspects into a sustainability plan that ties together the natural and human environment including clean air, fresh water, safe food supplies, climate resilience, access to nature, and proximity to recreational opportunities. Governments and municipalities often treat natural resource mitigation and adaptation in isolation and do not take advantage of potential synergies for community-level benefits if integrated into a larger context of ecosystem services to human communities. We present an innovative conceptual framework of multifaceted and interconnected sustainability planning that explicitly considers ecosystem services (e.g., habitat, carbon, water, climate, etc.) while mitigating for habitat impacts, to benefit local communities, including marginalized segments of our society and disadvantaged communities in highly urbanized counties in California. Our framework addresses sustainability of urban ecosystem services in a comprehensive and regional manner to create a more livable environment, greater environmental equality, and a climate-resilient urban landscape. We describe the current and potential opportunities for synergies between advance mitigation planning, soil carbon sequestration, green infrastructure, and disadvantaged community support.
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