Green infrastructure for cities: The spatial dimension

Planning for sustainable cities is a complex process addressing the fundamental areas of economic, environmental and socially-equitable sustainability. This chapter focuses on the environmental area, with theories, models, and applications illustrating possible spatial configurations of a green infrastructure to support ecological and physical processes in the built environment including: hydrology, biodiversity, and cultural/human activities. Green infrastructure is an emerging planning and design concept that is principally structured by a hybrid hydrological/drainage network, complementing and linking relict green areas with built infrastructure that provides ecological functions. Green infrastructure plans apply key principles of landscape ecology to urban environments, specifically: a multi-scale approach with explicit attention to pattern:process relationships, and an emphasis on connectivity. The chapter provides theoretical models and guidelines for understanding and comparing green infrastructure approaches. International examples at multiple scales are discussed to illustrate the concepts and principles introduced.