Green and brown infrastructures support a landscape-level implementation of ecological engineering

Abstract

The green infrastructure (GI) is a network of natural and semi-natural areas with environmental features that is designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. The concept has roots in the former hierarchical system of ecological networks. There are several examples of GIs, but details of their implementation at a landscape level are often missing or they have been used non-systematically. Here, we demonstrate opportunities for landscape-level implementation of GIs based on spatial analysis through the application of ecological engineering or other measures. Using maps and expert evaluations of different land-use types, we created a methodology for national-scale determination of Estonia’s GI. Based on spatially explicit datasets (e.g., land cover, soils, topography, roads), we determined the proportions of greenness and brownness (primarily anthropogenic) landscape indices. Areas with the highest greenness values served as the GI’s core areas, whereas areas with the greatest anthropogenic composition represented the brown infrastructure. Identification and classification of hotspots where the two infrastructures are in conflict (e.g., construction, mining areas, roads, settlements, airports, power lines, wind turbines) revealed locations where ecological engineering and other measures are needed to mitigate or eliminate the conflict. Developing spatially explicit models of the conflicts between the infrastructures represents a new approach in landscape planning and environmental management that links coarse-scale landscape planning and regional landscape plans with more detailed local landscape plans that support the design of site-specific ecological engineering and other measures. We demonstrate that the implementation of GIs is inseparably connected with ecological engineering and landscape-scale planning.