What is Green Infrastructure?
Green infrastructure is a term used to bring all the green assets of village, town and city together and use this data as a planning tool. Green infrastructure includes trees, parks, hedges, grassland, woodland and road verges. There is more about green infrastructure here on the Landvision Blog
Green infrastructure is defined as interconnecting nature areas, parks and open spaces, recreation grounds, Specimen urban trees, tree lined sitting areas, green squares; also rivers and lakes.
These are the basic components of landscape planning policy using GI as a tool;
- Overall Vision; strategy based on a landscape scale, locality, community.
- Landscape character – understanding, creating and protecting, Sense of Place.
- Site assessment of soils, hydrology, species, habitats.
- Recording and GIS; SWOT analysis.
- Long term management, building Sustainability, resilient landscapes.
- Design & Implementation.
- Management and after care maintenance of scheme.
- Delivering, managing and maintaining GI assets. Also, develop a joint approach towards GI for Councils preparing Local Development Framework (LDF) documents.
Advantages of Landscape planning Green Infrastructure (GI)
- Reconnection with nature.
- Encouraging wildlife – safeguarding habitat (See our native hedges blog) and creating new habitats.
- Micro climate benefits – improves living conditions in cities.
- Carbon capture slows climate change.
- Flood prevention and slowing water run off flow rates increases safety.
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Health and well being – (see link to research showing positive benefits of GI in cities.)
- Food production- orchards and allotments, community gardens,
- Recreation – formal and informal uses of green space and countryside.
- Green Space and Biodiversity – protecting vulnerable species (see our Butterfly ecology and wildlife ponds)
Green Infrastructure – Integration of resilient landscape planning
- Combating climate change through Green Infrastructure (GI.)
- Each green space created or managed effectively will help to contribute to GI and combating Climate change. Carbon capture schemes; lowering temperatures through GI.
- Shared vision in landscape planning across boundaries.
Best use of landscape – Character and beauty, multi functional spaces that are resilient.
Landscape planning of Green Spaces; brings positive health benefits
- Research shows that Green Space is positively linked to increased health and well being.”Development of green space should be allocated a more central position in spatial planning policy.”
- “The percentage of green space inside a one kilometer and a three kilometer radius had a significant relation to perceived general health.
- The relation was generally present at all degrees of urbanity.
- The overall relation is somewhat stronger for lower socio economic groups.
- Elderly, youth, and secondary educated people in large cities seem to benefit more from presence of green areas in their living environment than other groups in large cities.
- Research shows that the percentage of green space in people’s living environment has a positive association with the perceived general health of residents.
- Green space seems to be more than just a luxury.
- Development of green space should be allocated a more central position in GI is an integrated way of bringing development of green space into landscape planning and into more peoples’ lives. Long lasting benefits of GI will be evident for generations. To find out more about how we can help you by landscape planning in GI, landvision.co.uk or click on Contact Us page; spatial planning policy.”