Green infrastructure as a planning tool: A comprehensive systematization of urban redesign strategies to increase vegetation within public places

Abstract

Cities are currently facing climate change. While the greenhouse gases emissions are its main driver on the global scale, on the local one this role is mainly played by the suppression of vegetation to make way to impervious surfaces. Thus, green infrastructure must be part of urban planning policies and processes as a planning tool and a key element to make the increase of the vegetation within the urban fabric viable. However, this task is harder when consolidated areas, where there is a lack of space to add greening, are in focus. Thus, this work aimed to develop a comprehensive review worldwide, including either scientific and grey literature, systematizing urban planning instruments that provide strategies to increase the vegetation in consolidated and public urban spaces. A search carried out in scientific bases and on the cities' official websites resulted in a sample of 126 strategies distributed in 73 documents, 22 countries and 46 cities. These strategies were systematized according to their focus: on street redesign (SR), idle spaces (IS), depaving (DP) and enabling public access in private areas (PP). This systematization brings evidence that the vegetation increase throughout the consolidated urban fabric is a great challenge, but definitely feasible.