The emergence of green infrastructure as promoting the centralisation of a landscape perspective in spatial planning—the case of Ireland

Abstract

The ‘landscape’ approach to planning and design has long since advanced a social–ecological perspective that conceives ecosystems health and human well-being as mutually constitutive. However, conventional public sector organisational arrangements segregate and discretely administer development issues, thereby militating against the holistic viewpoint necessary to redress the entwined nature of complex planning issues. The emergence and continuing evolution of green infrastructure (GI) thinking seeks to redress this problem by promoting interdisciplinary collaboration to deliver connected and functionally integrated environments. This paper reflects upon the ongoing development and institutionalisation of GI in Ireland as a means to critically evaluate ‘if’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ GI thinking promotes the centralisation of landscape principles in public sector planning. Drawing on a review of local authority practices and interviews with local authority officials, the paper traces and explains the concept’s growth from the ‘rebranding’ of ecological networks to its current manifestation as a new mode of collaborative planning for multifunctional environments. This material is then employed to discuss the potential benefits and barriers encountered by GI planning more generally. Lessons are subsequently extrapolated for the advancement of landscape principles through innovative GI planning practices in other jurisdictions.