Designing a green infrastructure network for metropolitan areas: a spatial planning approach

Nature-Based Solutions in Cities—Contribution of the Portuguese National Association of Green Roofs to Urban Circularity

“…Green infrastructures can be also known as NBS or can integrate NBS [6]. Urban ES is becoming an influential concept to guide the planning, design, and management of urban landscapes towards urban sustainability [47][48][49], and the core objective of certain GI policy initiatives [13,50].…”

“…environmental (conserving biodiversity or adapting to climate change), social, economic, cultural and aesthetic) and provides numerous ES-from a social-ecological perspective (i.e. regulating, economic/provisioning, habitat (ecological), and social/cultural services)-and NBS at the same time and spatial location [13,48,49,56,57]. Assuring the services and benefits of healthy ecosystems, and preserving the long-term delivery of simultaneous ES linked to strategically planned (accessible and well-connected and managed) networks of GI at multiple spatial scales (i.e.…”

“…Assuring the services and benefits of healthy ecosystems, and preserving the long-term delivery of simultaneous ES linked to strategically planned (accessible and well-connected and managed) networks of GI at multiple spatial scales (i.e. spatial and temporal multifunctionality and connectivity aspects), coordinate and support numerous EU policy objectives, in areas such as agriculture, air pollution (air quality), biodiversity and nature, climate change and energy, environment and health, environmental technologies and earth observation (EO) [58], sustainable consumption and production, urban environment, waste and water among others; and fulfill variety of policy-maker and stakeholder group needs based on the best existing science and policy networks [13,57,59].…”

“…(2) to protect ecosystem functioning (maintain, strengthen, and restore), and to promote ecosystem and cultural services [70]; (3) to mitigate and to adapt against climate change impacts and scenarios, evaluating its options and strategies [59], and to intensify resilience by implementing approaches to vulnerability reduction toward pressures on environment and climate risks as combination of environmental issues (natural disasters) and anthropogenic factors (e.g. floods, urban heat island (UHI) effect); (4) to ensure adequate opportunities for health and well-being, creating and promoting open green spaces for relaxation, recreation and social interaction [71], getting stronger urban-rural connections, supporting the development of affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems and, strengthening the 'sense of community' and community building as basic human needs in the urban environment; and (5) to boost the scientific, economic, cultural and societal resources' connections among nature, biodiversity and ES values, and to conceive new policies and incentive structures seeking to build capacity for it [13,72,73].…”

“…Some consequences from the sprawl of urbanised areas are linked to the climate emergency, the current biodiversity crisis and the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) [2,[11][12][13] in need of transformative change by 2050. Science, technology and innovation on NBS act as catalyst components for addressing and promoting all the SDG across Europe [4,14]; (see Fig.…”