What is Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI)? Within a dynamic urban landscape, with the need to accommodate a growing urban population, the challenge of achieving both urban densification and urban greening within limited space is known as a paradigm called ‘The Complex City Paradox’ (Madureira & Monteiro, 2021).
URBAN GREEN GUIDE
At the core of the integration of both and green cities is Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI), a network of green and blue spaces functioning at different scale levels in urban contexts. Within the Urban Green Guide, this UGI network serves as a framework for effectively integrating UGI into densifying urban environments. The network of green and blue spaces within urban contexts is known as Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI), and this network plays a crucial role in the integration of green space and densifying areas. Based on research by Hansen et al. (2017), the UGI network is subdivided into different scale levels to guide planning efforts, for reference see the image and table below. The significance of the integration of UGI in densification plans lies in its increasing recognition as the principal provider of Ecosystem Services (ES) that support the well-being of urban populations (Madureira & Monteiro, 2021). Besides, UGI plays a crucial role in the resilience of the urban ecology. Urban ecological resilience is the capacity of urban ecosystems to absorb disturbances, reorganize, and maintain their essential functions, structures, identity, and feedback systems (Vink et al., 2022). Proper integration of UGI forms a strategic approach to make cities more resilient against environmental changes. This not only ensures the provision of vital ES, but also fosters rich biodiversities, promotes UGI connectivity, and optimizes the fitness of both biotic and abiotic factors. Because of this, the Urban Green Guide presents a series of UGI interventions that can be applied to densifying contexts to enhance both human well-being and urban ecological resilience.
For the integration of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) to enhance both human well-being and urban ecological resilience Merijn van der Does
UGI network scale Region Hub (RH) Region Corridor (RC) City Site (CS) City Corridor (CC) Neighbourhood Steppingstones (NS) Street Corridor (SC) Site Steppingstones (SS)
Elaboration Large natural area (ecological core) Connects Region Hubs & Region Hubs to City Sites e.g. river City level green space, e.g. city park Connects City Sites & City Sites to Neighbourhood Steppingstones Neighbourhood level green, e.g. pocket park Street level greenery Site level greenery, e.g. integrated in building envelope