Starting a Participative Approach to Develop Local Green Infrastructure; from Boundary Concept to Collective Action

Abstract

Flanders (Belgium) is one of the most densely populated regions in Europe. Intensive land use, widespread suburbanization, inadequate environmental qualities, and fragmentation everywhere deteriorate living conditions and put pressure on species and natural habitats. In the past, several governmental initiatives were launched to establish a coherent ecological network to improve the situation. Despite the set objectives, only a little progress was made. Therefore, to establish green infrastructure, a new approach that moves away from previous top-down and one-sided strategies is developed. Making use of Green Infrastructure as a boundary concept, interpretation was given through an open and participatory process. The core is the identification of common objectives (ecosystem services or other objectives/services), the selection of appropriate green infrastructure elements to support the services, and the co-design of a network taking the local socio-ecological realm into account. By applying the methodology in concrete urban and rural projects, we learned that establishing strong coalitions of stakeholders, obtaining and sharing reliable knowledge of the systems are key to an effective realization of green infrastructure.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge versus Ecological Wisdom: Are They Dissimilar in Cultural Landscape Research?

“…However, because EW needs to be proven over time, most studies have been conducted on heritage sites or traditional settlements. Current ideas and products that could be considered EW products include biomimicry [10,71], green infrastructure [72][73][74][75], and the sponge city concept [76][77][78]. All of these concepts have been proposed by the current generation, which emphasized nature's role as a laboratory and has been the source of the idea that it has been through trial-anderror experiments by the ecological system over time.…”

Exploring the Institutional and Bottom-Up Actions for Urban Air Quality Improvement: Case Studies in Antwerp and Gdańsk

“…Looking at the statement of another expert, it seems that greenery is advocated as a major planning solution for air quality improvement <GD09>. However, as much as urban greenery may generate numerous microclimatic or social benefits, reducing noise, regulating the thermal environment, supporting water management, promoting biodiversity, or improving and providing ecosystem services for the inhabitants [95][96][97][98], its positive impact on air quality is not always that straightforward. On the contrary, in some scenarios, greenery in urban areas can bring an opposite effect.…”

Re-powering the Nature-Intensive Systems: Insights From Linking Nature-Based Solutions and Energy Transition

“…In our case, CBC as intermediaries between NbS and ET are useful themes which help facilitate sustainability transition and climate adaptation through transdisciplinary negotiations and collaborations amongst society, nature, and technology. For instance, the role of boundary concepts such as ecosystem services, socio-ecological concepts, and green infrastructure in creating common understanding among different fields of geography and planning has been articulated in some previous studies (Opdam et al, 2015;Razzaghi-Asl, 2015;Schleyer et al, 2017;Smets et al, 2020). This understanding can help clarify the NbS concept's applicability and capacity to address ET concerns in communities.…”