Editorial | Open Access
City Planning and Green Infrastructure: Embedding Ecology into Urban Decision-Making
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Abstract: Green infrastructure (GI) includes an array of products, technologies, and practices that use natural systems—or designed systems that mimic natural processes—to enhance environmental sustainability and human quality of life. GI is the ultimate source of the ecosystem services which the biotic environment provides to humanity. The maintenance and enhancement of GI to optimise the supply of ecosystem services thus requires conscious planning. The objective of this thematic issue is to publish a cross-section of quality research which addresses how urban planning can contribute to the conservation, management, enhancement, and creation of GI in the city. The terms of reference include the technical, economic, social, and political dimensions of the planning/GI nexus. Here we offer a brief overview of the articles published in this collection, and consider where policy, planning, and design relating to urban GI may be heading in the future.
Keywords: biophilia; ecosystem services; green infrastructure; habitability; sustainability; urban design; urban ecology
Published:
© Paul Osmond, Sara Wilkinson. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.