Green Infrastructure Planning Principles: An Integrated Literature Review

Abstract

Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas, including green and blue spaces and other ecosystems, designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services at various scales. Apart from the ecological functions, green infrastructure, as a planning tool, contributes to social and economic benefits, leading to the achievement of sustainable, resilient, inclusive and competitive urban areas. Despite recent developments, there is still no consensus among researchers and practitioners regarding the concept of green infrastructure as well as its implementation approaches, which makes it often difficult for urban planners and other professionals in the field to develop a robust green infrastructure in some parts of the world. To address this issue, an integrative literature review was conducted to identify which green infrastructure planning principles should be acknowledged in spatial planning practices to promote sustainability and resilience. As a result of this literature review, the most common eight green infrastructure planning principles were selected—connectivity, multifunctionality, applicability, integration, diversity, multiscale, governance, and continuity. These principles intend to promote and simplify the development and use of green infrastructure by different academic and implementation organizations and provide a more defined model for sustainable landscape management in order to help practitioners and decision makers during the conceptualization and planning of green infrastructure.

Sustainable Urban Green Infrastructure Development and Management System in Rapidly Urbanized Cities of Ethiopia

“…There are several methods used for related work reviews that are helpful to address new or already known issues, and each provides different insights for knowledge creation, text development, and individuation [33]. To undertake the related work reviews on urban green infrastructure development and management systems, this research focuses on an integrative literature review approaches.…”

Green System Development in the Medinas of Tunis and Marrakesh—Green Heritage and Urban Livability

“…227-241). Social benefits are related to the wellbeing of the inhabitants and the connection of city users with the urban green spaces, which can promote cultural activities and social interactions [5][6][7][8][9][10]. In certain areas, contextual challenges should be taken into consideration as well, such as safety concerns [5].…”

“…In the Maghreb region, national and local organisms need to define strategic guidelines to adapt the UGI method in regions with particular and unique urban landscape characters. In fact, despite the multiple benefits of the green infrastructure adaptation in urban areas, related to human wellbeing and urban structure improvement, the different representations of the green infrastructure (GI) term didn't lead to a uniform process of this concept implementation [10]. On the other hand, researches about green components of Medinas urban landscapes in the Maghreb region are usually concerned only with the historic gardens outside the city.…”

Greenways as Integrated Systems: A Proposal for Planning and Design Guidelines Based on Case Studies Evaluation

“…However, the definition and practical applications of the greenway concept have changed over time. So much so that many authors have tried to amend he concept by highlighting its main principles and specific characteristics [6][7][8][9][10], which also assists in defining guidelines for their design and implementation [11,12]. In this context, this paper, in accordance with these theoretical studies, focuses on the need to determine a series of meta-planning and design indications that are able to intervene on territory with infrastructure, conceived not only as an axis for the development of soft mobility, but also as a supporting element for a new concept of development and use of territory, attentive to a territory's peculiarities and to the needs of the resident populations.…”