Planning syntropic urban infrastructure for climate adaptation in an Atlantic island city: Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Introduction Urban climate vulnerability is increasingly shaped by the interaction between sealed surfaces, fragmented vegetation networks, accelerated runoff, degraded soils, and uneven access to ecological buffering. In many consolidated cities, these conditions indicate predominantly linear metabolic regimes in which energy and water are rapidly dissipated as sensible heat and runoff rather than transformed into persistent ecological regulation. Although nature-based solutions are widely promoted in climate adaptation strategies, they are often implemented as isolated interventions with limited capacity to reorganize ecological processes at territorial scale. This study develops the concept of syntropic urban infrastructure as a thermodynamically grounded, network-based and implementation-oriented framework for climate adaptation in urban territories. Methods The empirical case is Santa Cruz de Tenerife, an Atlantic island municipality characterized by strong topographic and ecological gradients between a dense coastal urban core, peri-urban transition zones, and upper landscapes connected to the Anaga massif. A 2024–2025 baseline diagnosis integrates ecological connectivity, land surface temperature, hydrological runoff propensity, soil organic carbon, and spatial equity in access to regulatory ecosystem services. Results Results reveal a structurally uneven urban landscape characterized by low ecological network integration (PC 0.15; IIC 0.10), persistent summer thermal hotspots (+3 to +5 °C LST anomalies), accelerated runoff response (Curve Number 80 in critical subcatchments), shallow regenerative soils (SOC ≈ 1.5% in the 0–10 cm horizon), and unequal access to green infrastructure (42% of the population within 300 m of areas ≥0.5 ha). Discussion Based on this diagnosis, the study proposes a territorial portfolio of syntropic infrastructure strategies including ravine restoration, ecological corridor densification, distributed evapotranspirative networks, soil regeneration, and permeable retrofitting under a Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework. Rather than relying on simulation, the approach incorporates a predictive–verifiable logic based on measurable ecological indicators, enabling longitudinal validation of urban metabolic reorganization. The article advances an operational and transferable model for translating ecological diagnosis into climate-adaptive infrastructure planning in island and other fragmented urban territories.