134 green infrastructure investment are not
Learning from Cities— The 2nd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation
workers workshop, and forums.
clear. The economic value and benefits have yet to be proved. It can be known that private-sector investment under market economy is still at its early stage. Long-term funding has not been
Practice and Innovation 1. Revolutionary Innovation
completed, which will bring the follow-
Traditionally, cities are designed to
up operation of the innovative project into
function in a way that excludes nature.
a certain cash-strapped predicament.
Green Infrastructure (GI) planning in
(2) Development ideas of urban
many cities has been negatively affected
green infrastructure needs to be promoted
by institutional failures to acknowledge
In the traditional city development
the benefits that ecosystem services
concept, urban green infrastructure
provide. As a result, green infrastructure
would pay more attention to aesthetic
is often treated one-dimensionally — that
value, to the neglect of the ecosystem
it is something nice to have instead of
services value and other socio-economic
providing critical ecological and social
value. Actually, reasonable planning and
functions. This type of thinking led to
construction of green infrastructure can
the withdrawal of water for Melbourne’s
effectively reduce the city’s dependency
urban forest during the drought and it
on grey infrastructure, save input in
triggered the unprecedented decline of the
national public resources, reduce people’s
tree population.
sensitivity towards natural disasters. It
Our new perspective is to consider
has a very close relationship with city
green infrastructure as the city’s most
ecological system health and the human
important and vital infrastructure. This is
health, and it is a necessary “basic facility”
revolutionary for following reasons:
in maintaining natural life process.
Our holistic, ecosystem based
In this sense, green infrastructure has
approach accompanied by a demonstrated
played a key role in city transformation
multi-million dollar investment beyond
development. In the future, it is necessary
business as usual investment in green
to strengthen awareness and support of
infrastructure is the first of its kind
citizens, communities, as well as all social
for a city in Australia. As opposed
sectors for green infrastructure, based on
to implementing carbon intensive
the strategic goal of “4°C cooler”, through
infrastructure interventions in the
multiple forms, including media, and
landscape, we focused on harnessing the