Green Infrastructure as a tool to support spatial planning in European urban regions

Abstract

The last decades have seen a major shift in the planning and development of ecosystem and landscape management in Europe. First of all, in line with international developments, the life-support-services of ecosystems have come to the fore through the application of the concept of ‘ecosystem services’. Secondly, drawing on the principles of landscape ecology linkages between ecosystems are being stressed through the concept of ‘ecological networks’. Thirdly there is increasing recognition of the beneficial relationship between access to green space and improved public ‘health and well-being’. These services and relationships are being linked together in both academic literature and policy practice in what is termed the Green Infrastructure (GI) approach. GI networks it is argued are discernible at different scales, and across urban, peri-urban and rural landscapes. Furthermore GI is considered as supportive of ecological processes whilst simultaneously contributing to better human health and well-being. Moreover, especially in urban regions, GI is being placed at the same level as other essential urban infrastructure. Recognising these developments the authors have devised an updated conceptual framework for the development, management, and analysis of GI networks by focusing on contemporary drivers nested together at the territorial level and with a prominent role for temporal considerations. The latter has hitherto been only weakly presented in the GI discourse. Development of the conceptual model has been informed by reference to examples drawn from across Europe. Finally, directions are provided for future research, and for developing and delivering GI in the emerging context of ecosystem services and human well-being

The concept of green infrastructure and urban landscape planning: a challenge for urban forestry planning in Belgrade, Serbia

“…Despite a variety of purposes that go beyond the concept of green infrastructure, we lack the tools and approaches to measure the impact of the actual implementation and delivery, i.e., the social and environmental benefits (Nassauer & Opdam 2008, De Groot et al 2010, Hauck et al 2013, Lafortezza et al 2013a. At the same time, the lack of quantitative data is often mentioned in scientific literature as a problem when applying ecosystem services and a green infrastructure in practice (Albert et al 2014a).…”

“…These include: biodiversity, urban ecological networks and con-nectivity, multifunctionality, redundancy and modularity and adaptive design. Much research adopts a response to the challenges of modern urban development by utilising the concept of green infrastructure (GI), which is ontologically based on Ahern's strategies for urban landscape planning (Ahern 2013, Mell 2009, Lafortezza et al 2013a, Hansen & Pauleit 2014.…”

“…In particular, Lafortezza et al (2013a) presented a comprehensive analysis of green infrastructure initiatives across Europe, which resulted in the proposal of a new "Green Infrastructure Framework" as a unifying human-centred approach to multi-scale (spatial and temporal) planning for ecosystem and well-being services. It consists of "ecological hubs, links and multi-functionality in land-use management" but adds "drivers" for GI planning: ecosystem services, human well-being, social cohesion, biodiversity and sustainable development (Lafortezza et al 2013a). According to Hansen & Pauleit (2014) the multifunctionality of a green infrastructure network needs to take connectivity into account, because connectivity represents the spatial distribution and relationships of GI elements and, consequently, the distribution of the benefits they provide.…”

“…Ahern (2011Ahern ( , 2013 describes the concept of planning a landscape as a green infrastructure where landscape ecology has a central role in providing tools to understand, model and manage the frequency, magnitude and extent of urban ecosystem dynamics. The main principles of the landscape ecology approach that are relevant to the implementation of a green infrastructure in urban landscape planning are: (a) a landscape-scale approach with an explicit recognition of the relationships between pattern and process and an emphasis on structural and functional connectivity (Botequilha Leitao & Ahern 2002, Ndubisi 2002; (b) a multifunctional approach which aims to combine and link different ecosystem services with a connectivity dependent function (i.e., in relation to human health (recreation) and secure intact ecological systems and biodiversity) and, in that way, use the limited urban space more effectively (Ahern 2011, Lafortezza et al 2013a). …”

Building the Green Infrastructure of Belgrade: The Importance of Community Greening

“…Supporting a set of ecological and cultural functions [5,10], it also represents a contribution to the general well-being of people [11][12][13]. Benedict and McMahon [6] define GI as an interconnected network of green spaces which conserves values and functions of a natural ecosystem, providing associated benefits for human population.…”