Progressing Green Infrastructure (GI) in Europe

The research is focused on the role of GI in supporting the development of a green economy and sustainable land, water and city management. Green Infrastructure is a network of natural and semi-natural spaces and is a broad concept and includes both natural and man-made features, such as parks, land and marine reserves, hedgerows, and wetlands, as well as green roofs, eco-ducts and cycle paths. Although GI has been studied for more than four decades in all countries, it is still a relatively new EU policy instrument and there is not a significant amount of focused research around it. With its multi-functionality, GI is a subject of interest to a variety of stakeholders, such as private business, planning authorities, scientists, the general public and a range of policymakers, with responsibilities ranging from local to a European level. European policy is nowadays acknowledging GI and a communication will be adopted by the EC this year. This presentation, aiming at contributing to the communication of GI potential and successful implementation, will give an overview of the state of the art of GI, including case-study recognition, and will outline questions which the author believe should be answered for GI to progress effectively in Europe. In particular, global competitive gains from GI at an economic, environmental and social level will be explored, and considerations on how multi-functionality can be integrated into methods for quantifying benefits and costs and valuing GI will be developed.