Examining the Role of Green Infrastructure as an Advocate for Regeneration

Abstract

The alignment of Green Infrastructure (GI) planning principles with urban regeneration mandates can have a significant impact on the long-term socio-economic and ecological functionality of an area. As a mechanism to address landscape dereliction GI has been promoted as offering a suite of options to revitalize denuded spaces. This can take many forms including tree planting, waterfront redevelopment, the regeneration of former industrial sites, and a rethinking of spaces to make them more ecologically diverse. However, the successes seen in GI-led regeneration need to be considered in terms of the geographical, political, and socio-economic context. The following provides a review of regeneration projects that have integrated GI into development principles, examining whether these have led to positive change. Through a reflection on the scale, focus and location of these projects we discuss the factors that have shaped investment before identifying key factors that influence the inclusion of GI in regeneration works. The paper concludes that we have a growing catalogue of projects that can be used as a “green print” to align GI with regeneration to successfully delivery landscape rehabilitation and socio-economic revitalization.

Identity, place narrative and biophilic urban development: Connecting the past, present and future for sustainable liveable cities

“…Overall, understanding how and why certain social, physical and symbolic attributes of place contribute to place attachment (Devine-Wright, 2009) and how people make sense of their identities (Thomas et al, 2022) is important in ensuring that sustainable urban developments positively affect such processes. As communities are active producers of place, place making, including transformation of place, must enable their involvement (Macke et al, 2019;Courage, 2021;Mell, 2022). Relatedly, as place and community are intertwined (Parkhill et al, 2015;Weinstein et al, 2015) sustainable urban development must be attentive to "dynamic human emotions and relationships involved in individual's and group attachment to a specific location or place" (Gulsrud et al, 2018, p. 159).…”

“…Our research seeks to address the gap in existing literature concerning the design phase and adoption of biophilic design in high-rise buildings (Wijesooriya and Brambilla, 2020, p. 12), and the possible social or cultural impacts that may be experienced in place as a result. As communities are active producers of place, place transformations such as biophilic design, which aim to affect emotional responses of attachment, must be accepted by communities and incorporated within place making processes (Macke et al, 2019;Courage, 2021;Mell, 2022). As such, biophilic design must ensure that socio-cultural, as well as environmental or topographical nuances of place are understood and in different ways addressed within the design.…”

“…Human-nature connections can encourage environmentally conscious attitudes and behaviours (Nisbet et al, 2009;Ziari et al, 2018), and if developed in ways that enable community interaction, can contribute to a sense of community and sense of place (Mell and Whitten, 2021;van Vliet and Hammond, 2021) instilling a sense of attachment and stewardship (Kayihan, 2018). Finally, it is also possible that biophilic design could increase the economic value of land and property (Scott and Lennon, 2016) and encourage economic investment in place (Mell, 2022;Washbourne, 2022). Thus, while biophilic design holds several environmentally and economically beneficial outcomes (Ziari et al, 2018;Bathri and Kasliwal, 2019), its primary focus is on human health and wellbeing.…”

Geo-Environmental Spatial Imaginaries: Reframing Nature Using Soft Spaces and Hybrid Rationalities

“…This section draws upon interview evidence to explore the context underlying the emergence of new environmental governance spaces since the mid-1970s in the Mersey Belt, the ex-industrial urban corridor connecting the Liverpool and Manchester conurbations (Figure 1). In the process we demonstrate how the on-going rescaling of policy and governance structures has been driven in part by policy actor efforts to link environmental and regeneration policy agendas (see also Mell, 2022).…”

“…Green infrastructure in this sense is a form of hybrid infrastructure, with an emphasis on connectivity and access to networks of green spaces that provide benefits both to natural ecosystems and human populations (Benedict and McMahon, 2006;Mell, 2019Mell, , 2022. Drawing on a case study from North West England, the aim of the paper is to examine the multiple forms of rationality promoted and harnessed in urban greening projects that act as a form of hybrid infrastructure intended to deliver multifunctional benefits.…”