Biophilic Institutions and Governance: Biophilic Urbanism Initiatives (BUIs) Fostering Green Urban Features in Emerging and Developing Cities

Abstract

One of the goals promoted by the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ is to make cities more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, responding to the challenges that cities face today, including the increase of urban temperature because of climate change effects, and the deficit of urban green spaces. Within this context, green urbanism aims to create more sustainable cities in terms of greenness, compactness, energy efficiency, zero emissions, and waste production, having as a result sustainable places, communities, and lifestyles. The approach arises to address some of the challenges mentioned above, through seven features expressed in emerging archetypal cities, where the ‘biophilic city’ is one of them. Biophilic cities are the materialization of the biophilic urbanism approach, which pursues the strategic integration of nature in cities through planning and design to achieve more livable cities in terms of the well-being and health of their inhabitants, as well as the creation of resilient urban environments. Firstly, this research compiled initiatives performed under the biophilic urbanism, defined here as biophilic urbanism initiatives (BUIs), where the main differences in its implementation can be traced back to income differences between countries. Secondly, it presents opportunities, as well as challenges for greening emerging and developing cities, based on one of the five categories of indicators associated with biophilic cities, ‘biophilic institutions and governance.’ The indicators comprising this group aim to describe the extent to which local governments are involved in encouraging green features and biophilic design. Finally, this research draws contributions already implemented by a group of Latin American cities located in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. One of our main findings is that these initiatives have not yet been widely implemented in emerging and developing countries, compared with advanced economies, such as the USA, Germany, and Singapore, among others.