Can green infrastructure promote urban sustainability?

Abstract

In 2000, a UK government white paper promoted the prospect of an urban renaissance in the UK to be developed through a series of urban renewal initiatives to create better places for living, working and recreation. Eight years on, there continues to be a policy drive promoting better quality environments through integrative design, social inclusion and public participation. However, whether urban renewal can succeed without a progressive integration of multi-functional green spaces into the urban matrix is still uncertain. This paper proposes that green infrastructure can play a pivotal role in urban renaissance by providing a complementary green matrix of spaces that offer multi-level benefits for human populations. Green infrastructure can also be viewed as simultaneously providing natural resource sinks to assist urban climate control, water management and provide important green networks in an increasingly urbanised Britain. Due to the potential of green infrastructure to be ‘retrofitted’ into most environments, this paper argues that green infrastructures can be delivered across diverse urban environments in the UK to promote sustainable communities and landscape management. Overall, this paper will address how green infrastructure can be planned within urban environments to promote increased human integration, ecological sustainability and economic regeneration. Finally, it is suggested that the broader implications for climate control and economic regeneration delivered by green infrastructure integration will, in the long term, provide a base for a continued urban renaissance.