Infrastructure failure in times of development as derisking: Is failing early the best we can hope for?

Over the last 50 years, the Ruhr region experienced a remarkable transformation from an industrial to a post-industrial region. With regard to the rehabilitation of the environmental damages of more than 100 years of coal mining and steel production, investment in green infrastructure, and the creation of regional landscape parks constituted one of the main pillars of the economic and physical transformation of the region. However, little is known about the social effects of this green transformation. Many observers state that the Ruhr area is sharply divided by an east–west line (the A40 Highway) and in fact the Emscher zone was hit most by environmental degradation. We argue that environmental justice is a question of scale. While on the regional scale, the investments made in the Emscher zone can be seen as a trial to balance and repair a long-standing unequal provision with environmental qualities (not least parks), on a smaller scale (i.e., cities and neighbourhoods) we can demonstrate that in the cities of the Emscher zone environmental inequality is still observable. Some neighbourhoods benefit stronger from investment in regional parks and green infrastructure than others. The paper will describe the Emscher green regeneration programme and will give detailed insights into two cities of the Ruhr (including maps and data analysis).

Sustainable sources of funding for investment in Green Infrastructure have become increasingly difficult to identify due to centralised government financing cuts in the UK. Although local government, as traditional normative funders, have adopted innovative approaches to capital and revenue spending there remains a significant gap in how and what resources are supported. Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are one set of stakeholders that potentially have a role to play in addressing funding deficits. As subscriber funded organisations, they work at a local level to enhance economic prosperity, as well as delivering socio-cultural and ecological enhancement in identified urban areas. This paper examines the experience of BIDs in London to debate the influences and barriers to their investing in Green Infrastructure. It argues that BIDs can act as critical advocates for Green Infrastructure planning where the latter aligns with local economic objectives. Moreover, we identify spatial variations in the extent to which BIDs in London engage with Green Infrastructure in their documentation and practice, illustrating differences in the perceived value of the concept. We conclude that BIDs hold the potential to facilitate investment in Green Infrastructure due to their position as conduits of business, local government, and community objectives. However, to fully embrace this role balance is needed between the setting of environmental objectives and the need to support local business needs, land ownership issues, and capital/revenue financing considerations.

This study addresses the challenge of sustainable urban development in the context of global climate imperatives and accelerating urbanisation. We analyse the economic and implementation nexus between smart governance, green infrastructure, and sustainable financing. The core objective is to conduct a technical and economic analysis of the governance mechanisms, financial instruments, that facilitate the successful implementation of green infrastructure projects in emerging economies.Utilising a mixed-methods approach, this research combines a quantitative analysis of investment trends and project outcomes with a qualitative assessment of institutional frameworks and case studies drawn from Kazakhstan’s urban development experience. Our findings indicate that effective smart governance is a critical enabler for attracting and sustaining investment in green infrastructure. Key success factors include the establishment of robust financial mechanisms, such as public-private partnerships, green bonds, and performance-based funding, along with strategic planning and regulatory coordination among various stakeholders. The primary contribution of this research is the development of a comprehensive implementation framework that integrates technical, economic, and institutional dimensions.Copyright© 2025 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Article’s history: Received 5th of August, 2025; Revised 3rd of September, 2025; Accepted 23rd of September, 2025; Available online: 30th of September, 2025. Published as article in the Volume XX, Fall, Issue 3(89), 2025.

The combination of climate change and urbanization projected to occur until 2050 poses new challenges for land-use planning, not least in terms of reducing urban vulnerability to hazards from projected increases in the frequency and intensity of climate extremes. Interest in investments in green infrastructure (interconnected systems of parks, wetlands, gardens and other green spaces), as well as in restoration of urban ecosystems as part of such adaptation strategies, is growing worldwide. Previous research has highlighted the insurance value of ecosystems in securing the supply of ecosystem services in the face of disturbance and change, yet this literature neglects urban areas even though urban populations are often highly vulnerable. We revisit the insurance value literature to examine the applicability of the concept in urban contexts, illustrating it with two case studies: watersheds providing drinking water for residents of Vancouver, Canada; and private gardens ensuring connectedness between other parts of urban green infrastructure in London, UK. Our research supports the notion that investments in green infrastructure can enhance insurance value, reducing vulnerability and the costs of adaptation to climate change and other environmental change. Although we recommend that urban authorities consider the insurance value of ecosystems in their decision-making matrix, we advise caution in relying upon monetary evaluations of insurance value. We conclude by identifying actions and management strategies oriented to maintain or enhance the insurance value of urban ecosystems. Ecosystems that are themselves resilient to external disturbances are better able to provide insurance for broader social–ecological systems.

In the context of a worsening climate crisis and the need to ensure sustainable economic development, green infrastructure is becoming a strategic priority for public policy. This article analyzes the role of public investment in projects aimed at reducing carbon footprints, increasing energy efficiency, and developing renewable energy sources as a catalyst for long-term economic growth. Based on macroeconomic data and case studies from leading countries (the EU, the US, and China), it is shown that targeted public investment in green infrastructure not only facilitates environmental transformation but also generates a multiplier effect: it creates jobs, stimulates private investment, increases productivity, and strengthens technological sovereignty. Particular attention is paid to the institutional conditions necessary for the efficient allocation of resources and minimizing the risks of a green financial bubble. The results confirm that public investment in green infrastructure is not an expense item, but strategic capital for the future.

        This study explores the role of Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECM) in global climate governance and biodiversity conservation and proposes a systematic evaluation framework. As the global environmental crisis intensifies, traditional protected areas face challenges such as difficulties in designation, conflicts with human settlements, and exclusive management models. OECM has emerged as a complementary conservation strategy, particularly when combined with Green Infrastructure (GI). This approach not only broadens the scope of conservation but also introduces new actors, such as corporations and communities, into environmental governance. However, there remains a lack of quantitative evaluation methods to assess the effectiveness of OECM.        Using the Taipei Basin as a case study, a densely populated urban area with severe green space fragmentation facing challenges from climate change and biodiversity loss, this research develops an evaluation framework. It integrates the Gravity Index (GGG), Connectivity Index (dMtot), and Ecosystem Service Value Index (ESV_B) to quantify the ecological and social benefits of corporate investment in green infrastructure. Additionally, the urban cooling model is employed to analyze temperature changes under different OECM scenarios.        The results indicate that OECM-driven measures, especially corporate investments in green infrastructure such as urban parks and riverside green spaces, significantly enhance urban habitat connectivity, strengthen ecosystem resilience, and effectively mitigate the urban heat island effect. Among these, riverside corridors were identified as key areas for improving connectivity and cooling effects. Corporate participation in promoting OECM not only enhances the stability of ecosystem services but also fosters collaboration between corporations and communities, achieving synergetic governance among diverse stakeholders.        This study demonstrates that OECM provides an innovative solution to address urban biodiversity and climate challenges, complementing traditional protected areas and offering a new strategy for achieving global climate governance and conservation objectives.Keywords: Green Infrastructure (GI), Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECM), Habitat Connectivity, Ecological Resilience, Corporate Participation, Brand Value, Economic Benefits.

Given the increasingly severe global climate change, the reduction in urban greenhouse gas emissions has become the common goal of all nations. As a widely concerned sustainable development strategy, green infrastructure investment (GII) aims to reduce urban carbon emissions, improve the efficiency of resource utilization, and improve environmental quality. However, the construction cycle of green infrastructure is long, and the construction process itself may produce carbon emissions; so, the final effect of GII on urban carbon emissions is unclear, which deserves our in-depth study. Further, is this effect having a time-lag effect? Is there only a simple linear relationship between GII and urban carbon emissions? Based on panel data from 235 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2019, this study conducted an econometric regression analysis using time-lag-effect and threshold-effect models. The results showed the following: (1) GII had a negative inhibitory effect on urban CO2 emissions. Adding one unit to the GII could reduce urban CO2 emissions by 0.032 units. (2) GII exhibited a time-lag effect on urban CO2 emissions, and the greatest reduction in CO2 emissions occurred in the third lag period. (3) GII had a threshold effect on urban CO2 emissions based on technological progress (TP). This paper used the static and dynamic panel threshold models to research separately, and obtained the corresponding regression results. In the static panel, the double threshold values for TP were 3.9120 and 6.8035. At different TP levels, GII had an inhibitory effect on CO2 emissions, but the coefficients were different. However, in the dynamic panel, the threshold value was 3.666. The threshold changed over time and the effect of GII on CO2 emissions shifted from facilitation to inhibition.

Promoting urban greening: Valuing the development of green infrastructure investments in the urban core of Manchester, UK

Global value chain participation, globalisation-Energy Nexus and sustainable development in ASEAN

Green infrastructure (GI) plays a pivotal role in contemporary urban infrastructure. Green infrastructure investment (GII) provides a fresh perspective for controlling urban carbon emissions in the context of global climate change. Based on theoretical analysis, we employed panel data from Chinese cities to examine the effects and operating mechanisms of GII on urban carbon emissions. The research reveals that the incremental GII can notably decrease urban carbon emissions, and various robustness tests and endogeneity checks corroborate this finding. However, when considering the cumulative effect, the GII stocks do not appear to influence urban carbon emissions; GII mitigates urban carbon emissions by drawing in pollution control talents, improving the efficiency of household waste treatment, increasing urban green spaces, and heightening public attention to the environment. Relative to cities in the central-western region, northern cities, smaller cities, resource-based cities, smart pilot cities, and cities with a lesser environmental emphasis, GII is more effective in curbing carbon emissions in eastern cities, southern cities, larger cities, non-resource-intensive cities, cities not in the smart pilot initiative, and cities with a stronger environmental focus. This research enhances the understanding of GI’s environmental outcomes and the determinants of urban carbon emissions from an investment viewpoint. It also dissects the four operative mechanisms through which GII lowers urban carbon emissions, offering a novel interpretation of GII for the variance in carbon emission levels across cities with diverse traits.

U.S. water utilities are grappling with a diverse suite of challenges. Aging water infrastructure, changing weather patterns, rising demand for clean water, higher water treatment costs, and other pressures are affecting how water utilities expand, repair, and maintain the infrastructure that carries and cleans our water. The traditional approach to addressing these problems – building more grey infrastructure1 – is not the only option. Green infrastructure may provide a cost-effective alternative that can help water utilities protect source water supplies, reduce stormwater runoff, and improve water quality.Current municipal accounting standards, however, do not adequately account for the benefits provided by green infrastructure. For example, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, which establishes standard accounting practices for state and local governments, requires public utilities to value land assets using the historical purchase price, rather than the current market value. This approach frequently does not capture the full value of the benefits provided by green infrastructure and so may limit utilities' ability to accurately compare the benefits and costs of green and grey infrastructure.The lack of a formal approach for accounting for green infrastructure and its benefits may be a barrier to further utility investment in this area and may predispose utilities to favor more investment in grey infrastructure. The lack of comparable accounting methods may also limit utilities' ability to convey green infrastructure's true benefits to rate payers, municipal governments, and investors.This project developed new accounting methods to help public water utilities more accurately assess the value provided by their green infrastructure assets. The researchers developed two model accounting frameworks that could be included in the unaudited supplementary disclosure part of a utility's comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR). We pilot tested these two frameworks at three participating utilities: The City of Raleigh (NC) Public Utilities Department, The City of Asheville (NC) Water Resources Department, and Clean Water Services (OR). We conducted surveys and semi-structured interviews to understand the utilities' experiences with the accounting frameworks and how the frameworks could be improved.This report summarizes the results of these pilot tests, including the frameworks' strengths and weaknesses and recommendations from the piloting utilities for improving future iterations of the frameworks. Several key themes emerged from these results. Each utility faced a unique set of regulatory, political, and other policy drivers that influenced their use of green infrastructure. The extent and type of both inter- and intra-utility communication affected the utilities' access to information and their ability to fully document their green infrastructure assets. Despite the differences among utilities' drivers and communication pathways, however, all utilities noted the need for standardized approaches that allow for cross-utility comparison.The ability to account for the benefits provided by green infrastructure is critical for further investment in green infrastructure by water utilities, municipalities, and investors. This project contributes to that effort by offering two approaches for accounting that more accurately reflect the value that green infrastructure provides for water utilities.This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series.ISBN: 9781780405124 (eBook)

Amidst the intensifying impacts of global economic turbulence and external instabilities, the urgency to enhance urban sustainable development capabilities has become increasingly pronounced. Urban green-infrastructure investment, as a pivotal investment direction, plays a significant role in strengthening urban sustainable development capabilities. Based on panel data from 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2022, this study employs an empirical model to thoroughly investigate the impact of urban green-infrastructure investment on urban sustainable development and its underlying mechanisms. The research findings indicate the following: ① Urban green-infrastructure investment significantly promotes the enhancement of urban sustainable development levels, a conclusion that remains robust after undergoing robustness tests. ② The mechanism tests reveal that the enhancement of industrial chain resilience, ecological environment resilience, and talent agglomeration are crucial pathways through which urban green-infrastructure investment drives sustainable urban economic development. ③ Heterogeneity analysis finds that cities in the central and western regions, resource-based cities, cities with lower levels of urbanization, and cities with higher degrees of openness are more sensitive to the sustainable development-enhancing effects of green-infrastructure investment. ④ Spatial effect tests show that urban green-infrastructure investment has a positive spatial spillover effect on enhancing urban sustainable development levels. Based on these findings, it is recommended that cities increase investment in green infrastructure, optimize investment structures, promote the enhancement of industrial chain and ecological environment resilience, strengthen talent agglomeration effects, and leverage regional comparative advantages to invest in green infrastructure in a location-specific manner. This study not only validates the positive impact of urban green-infrastructure investment on urban sustainable development but also provides multi-perspective insights and references for analyzing the effects of urban green-infrastructure investment, offering policy support for achieving urban sustainable development.

Green Infrastructure is the network of green spaces and water systems that delivers multiple environmental, social and economic values and services to urban communities. This living network strengthens the resilience of urban environments to respond to the major current and future challenges of climate change, growth, health and biodiversity loss, as well as water, energy and food security. With the rapid expansion of towns and cities around the world, the far-reaching value of Green Infrastructure is increasingly recognised by scientific, planning and design communities. A key strategy area of the South Australian Green Infrastructure Project has been development of a sound and credible evidence base to demonstrate the multiple benefits and make the case for investment in Green Infrastructure. A review of local and global literature, with an emphasis on the most recent peer-reviewed research, was carried out between 2012 and 2014. The body of evidence firmly establishes the many and diverse benefits of Green Infrastructure. These include modification of temperatures and climatic conditions, improved human health and well-being, enhanced community liveability, more effective water management, increased economic prosperity, greater opportunity for biodiversity conservation and more extensive urban food production. The primary focus of this paper is the contribution of Green Infrastructure to climate adaptation and protection.

Run‐off from impervious surfaces has pervasive and serious consequences for urban streams, but the detrimental effects of urban stormwater can be lessened by disconnecting impervious surfaces and redirecting run‐off to decentralized green infrastructure. This study used a before–after‐control‐impact design, in which streets served as subcatchments, to quantify hydrologic effectiveness of street‐scale investments in green infrastructure, such as street‐connected bioretention cells, rain gardens and rain barrels. On the two residential treatment streets, voluntary participation resulted in 32.2% and 13.5% of parcels having green infrastructure installed over a 2‐year period. Storm sewer discharge was measured before and after green infrastructure implementation, and peak discharge, total run‐off volume and hydrograph lags were analysed. On the street with smaller lots and lower participation, green infrastructure installation succeeded in reducing peak discharge by up to 33% and total storm run‐off by up to 40%. On the street with larger lots and higher participation, there was no significant reduction in peak or total stormflows, but on this street, contemporaneous street repairs may have offset improvements. On the street with smaller lots, lag times increased following the first phase of green infrastructure construction, in which streetside bioretention cells were built with underdrains. In the second phase, lag times did not change further, because bioretention cells were built without underdrains and water was removed from the system, rather than just delayed. We conclude that voluntary green infrastructure retrofits that include treatment of street run‐off can be effective for substantially reducing stormwater but that small differences in design and construction can be important for determining the level of the benefit. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The environmental effects of economic growth and globalization in Sub-Saharan Africa: A panel general method of moments approach