Global Green Infrastructure

Lessons for successful policy-making, investment and management

Ian Mell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317520566
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

Over the last decade research exploring green infrastructure planning has burgeoned. Transferable green infrastructure messages between locations though are less well established and there remains a visible gap between the conceptual understanding of green infrastructure and its application in practice. Drawing together evaluations of green infrastructure policy-making and practice from across the world Global Green Infrastructure illustrates where successful practices can be identified. Examples from major green infrastructure development areas in the UK, Europe and the USA highlight the variety of investment options that can deliver socio-economic benefits. There is also a growing awareness of the added value of landscape planning in the rapidly developing cities of India and China.

Reflecting on ten international case studies Global Green Infrastructure highlights the ways that ecology and engineered solutions can deliver successful urban development. Based on in situ research with the growing community of green infrastructure researchers and practitioners Global Green Infrastructure looks at the contradictions, consensus, and expanding evidence base of successful investments. This book also presents an in-depth commentary on the contemporary approaches to investment in urban greening and green infrastructure, and draws on the lessons we have learnt from a decade of experimentation, delivery and reflection.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Green infrastructure: what, where and why?

This book opens with two thoughts that will help focus the following discussion of green infrastructure. The first is an anecdote and the second relates to Fig. 1.1. Both, I would argue, illustrate that we need to take a much broader view on how we value the landscapes around us and how this should influence the ways in which we manage them. While each thought is, of and in itself self-contained, they do highlight some of the issues of focus, terminology, scale and valuation that will be discussed in more depth throughout the following chapters. It is envisaged that these thoughts will act as a starting point for the much deeper conversation presented in this book and assist in tying together the myriad aspects of green infrastructure planning.

Figure 1.1 Office landscape photographs, Liverpool (UK).

The first thought relates to a conversation that occurred in 2006 when I was asked to explain what green infrastructure was by a family member. I proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes discussing the various principles, benefits and locations in which green infrastructure could be found. In reply I heard: ‘So green infrastructure can be my garden?’. Yes, I replied, but then went on to explain that it could also be a whole range of landscape features including woodlands, water resources and some built environment infrastructure (e.g. cycle paths).

Moving forward to 2014 and I was once again asked what green infrastructure is by the same family member. She had heard news reporters talking about ‘infrastructure’ (in relation to transport and housing development) and wanted to know whether there was any connection to green infrastructure. Yes, I replied, there are elements of green infrastructure thinking embedded in other forms of urban and landscape planning. What we have to remember, though, is that the context of an investment is central to the benefits they can deliver. Talking on this again, on 7 June 2014, I was watching BBC World News in Ahmedabad, a location in India that will be discussed in Chapter 7, and an item on climate change was being discussed. The reporter was discussing how businesses in the UK were redesigning parking areas using porous pavements, bioswales and filtration traps to make economic savings. Finally, green infrastructure seems to be penetrating the mainstream!

In the eight years between these two conversations the principle uses of green infrastructure have developed extensively within landscape and urban planning (Allen III, 2012; Beatley, 2012; Kambites & Owen, 2006; Mell, 2010). The level of debate discussing its values has extended from a small number of research clusters in the UK and USA into a global exploration of the value of green infrastructure, which has become embedded in the scoping, planning and management of landscape resources (Beatley, 2000; Davies et al., 2006; Weber & Wolf, 2000; Williamson, 2003). Although research from the UK and USA is still at the forefront of this process, there is a growing literature in Europe and increasingly in Asia, reviewing the opportunities green infrastructure provides to address socio-economic and sustainability issues (Boyle et al., 2013; Lemma & Overseas Development Agency, 2012). We can therefore argue that expansion has brought landscape back into the mainstream discussions of development, providing it with a greater visibility, and vis-à-vis, integrity.

Figure 1.2 Urban green infrastructure, Vancouver (Canada).

Figure 1.3 Forestry Commission GI Guidance (UK).

Over the same timescale we have also seen green infrastructure filter through into university teaching curriculums, watched the creation of an increasing number of strategies and guidance documents and witnessed green infrastructure being embedded within international (e.g. European Union), national (e.g. the UK) and sub-national policy (e.g. Cambridgeshire, UK). Moreover, in spite of the variation evident in the details of how and why green infrastructure is being developed between locations, there is a positive association between the discussions of its value and its development within policy and practice (Landscape Institute, 2013; Lerner & Allen, 2012; Hostetler et al., 2011; Roe & Mell, 2008). However, although there is a growing understanding of what green infrastructure is, how it can be used and what social, ecological and economic value it can deliver, there is still a lack of consensus regarding how these various elements of landscape and green infrastructure should be addressed (Mell, 2013a). This is not, in many cases, a negative, because as landscape planners continue to plan more sustainable places, such variation can provide alternative approaches for development that instil a more appropriate focus for investment (Wright, 2011).

The second thought relates to Fig. 1.1. This photograph was taken in January 2015 in my office in the oldest Planning School in the UK, at the University of Liverpool. It is presented as it represents, to me at least, a number of the key issues we deal with when we discuss green infrastructure. Fig. 1.1 shows a number of photographs used in my teaching and research materials that, like many academics, were taken on holiday. They show a number of landscapes in Canada, mainly in Vancouver and Vancouver Island, which have meanings to me as an individual. Academically they highlight the range of activities and landscape types that can be considered green infrastructure. They also illustrate, again to me, some of the most fundamental issues in green infrastructure research that will populate this book: perceptions, scale, focus and multi-functionality. The images help to tell the story of our cultural and industrial relationships with the landscape; they show the wonder and awe that trees can promote; and they highlight that each of us will find value in different aspects of a given landscape. Our understanding of these issues, and the ways in which they interact, therefore frames how we address the scoping, design, implementation and management of the landscape.

To address these issues, this book sets out a systematic exploration of these issues focused on a decade of evidence gathering and analysis of green infrastructure research. Using examples of investment from a number of locations across the globe, both established and growing, the following examines the focus, value and opportunities for investment in green infrastructure. Each example illustrates how a nuanced understanding of the local landscape context is needed if planners are to promote an appropriate set of parameters for development. Drawing on interactions and a dialogue with a range of stakeholders (academics, policy-makers, practitioners and user groups) the following chapters explore how green infrastructure can be used to create valuable assets in urban areas and how they can tackle the key landscape issues of climate change, water management, ecological capacity, and socio-economic growth.

The book also presents a personal milestone. Since 2005 I have worked extensively on green infrastructure planning. I have been lucky enough to work with incredibly dedicated and insightful people to help develop the academic debates of its meaning (Mell, 2013a, 2010, 2008); I was part of the team who scoped, consulted, wrote and supported the second Green Infrastructure Strategy (Cambridgeshire Horizons, 2011). I have also stood in muddy fields on cold mid-winter mornings discussing the best forms of biodiversity management, recreational improvements and accessibility needed within a range of green infrastructure projects. I have seen how green infrastructure discussions become both increasingly vague yet simultaneously nuanced when explored in international forums. As a consequence, green infrastructure has shaped a significant proportion of my working life. The following book is therefore populated with professional commentary, but is supported by additional personal insights into the development of green infrastructure in a number of these different locations.

1.1 Why green infrastructure and why now?

Over the last decade, research exploring green infrastructure planning has burgeoned (Boyle et al., 2013). Globally, there is a growing consensus of what, where and how investment in green infrastructure should be implemented, which is, in many locations, supported by an integrated policy-making and advocacy arena (Benedict & McMahon, 2002; Goode, 2006; Lennon, 2014a). Green infrastructure can therefore be considered as having positioned itself as a ‘go-to’ approach in contemporary landscape planning, as it holistically addresses climate change, social development and economic valuation simultaneously (Mell, 2010).

Transferable green infrastructure messages between locations are less well established. Moreover, there is a visible gap between the conceptual understanding of green infrastructure – the what is it questions, and its application in practice – the so what questions (Vandermeulen et al., 2011). This, partially, reflects the versatility of the concept to meet a number of planning objectives simultaneously, but also illustrates the variability in planning policy and practice across the world. As a result there has been, to date, no accepted single global synthesis of green infrastructure which draws on case study material from more than one location. A number of authors, including Austin (2014), Gill et al. (2007) and Rouse & Bunster-Ossa (2013), have though each contextualised their understanding of green infrastructure in a single location. To date, Mell’s (2010) is one of the few evaluations which attempts to find a common narrative across a number of locations; in this case the UK, USA and Western Europe.

The following discussions aim to be one of the first, if not the first, to comprehensively draw together primary in-depth assessments and evaluations of the development, role and utility of green infrastructure in policy-making and practice in each of its major development areas (UK, Europe and USA). It will also be the first to explore the growing value of green infrastructure in expanding regions, such as India and China, to highlight the value of green infrastructure as a multi-functional and integrated approach to urban planning. By drawing on a discussion of a number of key thematic principles – multi-functionality, scale, temporal change, investment policy formation/structures and delivery focus – the following evaluates how we can debate ex-ante opportunities, as well as the ex-post successes of green infrastructure which can offer local-, regional- and national-level planners an insight into the benefits associated with investment in urban greening (South Yorkshire Forest Partnership & Sheffield City Council, 2012; Town & Country Planning Association, 2012a). Based on in situ research undertaken with the growing green infrastructure community of researchers and practitioners in the UK, USA, Europe, India and China, the following looks at the contradictions, consensus, expanding evidence base and benefits being proposed for green infrastructure planning. This presents a comprehensive commentary on the contemporary approaches to green infrastructure investment, assessment, and where innovations have proved successful, but will also draw on the less successful lessons we have learnt from investment over the previous decade.

Figure 1.4 Street trees in Ahmedabad, India.

Figure 1.5 Promenade Planteé, Paris, France.

Figure 1.6 Locals playing Mahjong and cards in a public green space in Shanghai, China.

1.2 What is green infrastructure?

Green infrastructure is simultaneously a simple yet very complex approach to landscape planning. At its core are a small number of accepted characteristics that have been discussed within the academic and practitioner literature since it was first discussed in the late 1990s (Williamson, 2003). These principles, based on notions of connectivity between people, places and resources, accessibility to the landscape and the delivery of a range of benefits within an integrated approach to urban-landscape development, are all key ideas within the green infrastructure literature, all of which are focused on the assumption that green infrastructure can, and does, promote landscape multi-functionality. Subsequently, green infrastructure has been reported as supporting ecological functions, social needs and economic improvements (Austin, 2014; Benedict & McMahon, 2006; Davies et al., 2006; Mell, 2010; Natural England & Landuse Consultants, 2009; Weber et al., 2006). Since its first use in the late 1990s (Rouse & Bunster-Ossa, 2013) the ways in which green infrastructure has developed also illustrates that this set of assumptions have become normative.

For example, in the UK, green infrastructure planning has taken a more holistic approach to the integration of socio-economic and environmental influences compared to the water-centric approach popularised in the USA (Mell, 2012; Rouse & Bunster-Ossa, 2013; Thomas & Littlewood, 2010). Therefore, although the focus of application may differ, within these discussions the principles noted above have been repeatedly discussed to form the conceptual framework for green infrastructure planning. Taking a synthesis of the existing research as a starting point, this book views green infrastructure in the following way:

GI includes the network of green spaces and other natural elements such as rivers and lakes that are interspersed between and connect villages, towns and cities. Individually these elements are GI assets and the roles that these assets play are GI functions. When appropriately planned, designed and managed, these assets and functions have the potential to deliver a wide range of social, environmental and economic benefits

(Landscape Institute, 2009: 4)

The Landscape Institute and others (Benedict & McMahon, 2006; England’s Community Forests & Forestr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms
• 1 Introduction: green infrastructure: what, where and why?
• 2 The antecedents of green infrastructure: Olmsted, Howard and beyond
• 3 Green infrastructure: linking concepts with practice
• 4 The USA: water management in Chicago and the Atlanta Beltline development
• 5 UK: Cambridgeshire Green Infrastructure Strategy and the London Olympic Park
• 6 Europe: green infrastructure development in Paris (France) and Milan (Italy)
• 7 India: lessons in innovative green infrastructure planning in New Delhi and Ahmedabad
• 8 China: evaluating the value of green infrastructure planning in Shanghai and Suzhou
• 9 Global reflections of green infrastructure investment: successes and barriers
• Bibliography
• Index