Sustainable Urban Green Infrastructure Development and Management System in Rapidly Urbanized Cities of Ethiopia

Eshetu Gelan,Yared Girma

doi:10.3390/technologies9030066

Abstract

Lack of sustainable strategic approaches has led to non-functional, unsafe, inaccessible, and fragmented urban green infrastructure within cities. In sub-Saharan African cities, the development and management of urban green infrastructure are not realized in many instances due to a lack of priorities and resources. The objective of the study is to develop strategic approaches that help to overcome the challenges of urban green infrastructure and promote a sustainable development and management system in Ethiopia with special references to the emerging towns of Oromia special zone that surrounds Finfinne. To design sustainable strategic approaches for an urban green infrastructure development and management system, the study collected data using key informant interviews, focus group discussion and document reviews. Findings identify seven potential strategic approaches that are needed to create a sustainable urban green infrastructure development and management system. Hence, improving the quantitative, qualitative, and accessibility standards on the provision of urban green infrastructure is needed for sustained development. Moreover, advanced development in budget allocation, capacity building, legal and institutional framework, awareness creation, and stakeholder’s involvement are also needed to promote a sustainable development and management system of urban green infrastructure in the urban centers of Ethiopia in general and emerging towns in particular.

Highlights

The findings of this paper provide variety of strategic approaches offering a wider range of measures that can be utilized to successfully develop and manage urban green infrastructure (UGI) components such as parks, playing ground, sport filed, green corridors, etc
GI components, financial constraint, inadequate staff, limited awareness, inadequate legal and institutional frameworks, lack of enforcement of laws, lack of coordination between institutions and limited community participation have been identified as challenges hindering the development of urban GI components from implementation and management perspective [52,63]
The result of the study revealed that limited community participation and stakeholder involvement was the main problem for effective development and the overall management of UGI components in the study towns

Summary

Introduction

The United Nations report indicates that currently, more people of the world (55%) are residing in urban centers, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050 [3]. This rapid population growth and urban expansion across the globe is followed by degradation of local environments through air pollution, intensification of the heat island, depletion of urban green spaces, biodiversity and ecosystem services [4,5,6,7,8]. Population growth and urban expansion place pressure on natural resources and threats to compromise the quality of life within the urban environment [9,10]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion