Planning Green Infrastructure as a Source of Urban and Regional Resilience – Towards Institutional Challenges

Abstract

Green infrastructure programmes and strategies are regarded as planning opportunities to promote sustainable and resilient urban development. However, the discourse about green infrastructure policy and its effectiveness has pointed to the limited success in practical implementation. Since the green infrastructure has no planning status in its own right, it depends on being embedded in comprehensive urban and regional planning approaches if it is to have an impact on sustainable and resilient urban development. At the same time spatial planning may contribute to providing a platform for its institutionalisation. Against this backdrop, the article first looks at the contents of urban resilience. Secondly, we discuss principles for planning resilient cities. Thirdly, we analyse how green infrastructure initiatives can foster these principles contributing to building urban and regional resilience. Fourthly, we discuss the challenges facing the institutionalisation of green infrastructure initiatives. Finally, we draw conclusions about the future role of spatial planning in the process of institutionalising green infrastructure strategies.

Keywords

• green infrastructure
• urban resilience
• spatial planning
• institutional challenges