Priority Areas for Developing Green Infrastructure in Semi-arid Cities: A Case Study of Tehran

Abstract

Urban green infrastructure (GI) approach supports building resilience, mitigating greenhouse gases emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. However, the development and maintenance of GI in semi-arid cities can be hindered by limitations such as available water resources. In this article, we study priority areas for GI development schemes at the neighbourhood scale through a seasonal vulnerability framework with the case study of two urban districts in the semi-arid city of Tehran, Iran. Heat mitigation and stormwater runoff control are considered as the main objectives of GI development. The results show that priority areas have high levels of land surface temperature, impervious surfaces and population density, with a low proportion of vegetation land cover. The necessary GI services vary in different local climate zones (LCZ) during the year. Although heat mitigation is required in both compact and open LCZs, the runoff control service of GI is also needed for neighbourhoods with compact midrise settings. To promote sustainability at the neighbourhood scale, the findings of the study can be used for initiating nature-based solutions and GI development projects.