Green Infrastructure: The New Paradigm for Resilient Cities

Abstract

Green infrastructures are networks of interconnected natural areas that work to maintain and conserve ecosystem services for both people and wildlife, which would help to humankind to tackle down negative environmental effects for urban development such as decreased air quality – due to a rapid population growth – and the densification of cities around the world. Within the 2030 agenda, the problems of current infrastructure have been addressed on nature-based solutions through green infrastructure, as a strategy that complements the use of gray infrastructure, which represent enormous investments and maintenance costs. Nature-based solutions that foster the implementation of green infrastructure (GI) are more environmentally friendly but also more economical, so that they represent a great potential for developing countries to increase and improve their actual infrastructure to make their cities less vulnerable, and thus, more resilient. GI objectives include the promotion of health and ecosystem resilience and the conservation of biodiversity; it also fosters the incorporation of habitat-restoration measures into territorial planning. Today, there are several projects around the world that provide evidence of the benefits that this type of infrastructure has on the quality of life of urban inhabitants, in addition to encourage the conservation of remaining natural capital in urban areas. Although GI contributes to meet several Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including SDG 9, its implementation also has several challenges that must be addressed, some of which are also discussed in the chapter.KeywordsGreen infrastructureBenefitsEcosystem servicesCitiesLessons learned