Planning Steps of Urban Green Infrastructure in Existing Cities

Abstract

The negative impacts of climate change have spread widely and calls increased toward finding smarterstrategies that can support both climate change adaptation and mitigation. Urban Green Infrastructure(UGI) is considered a certain type of such strategies. The literature review indicates a lack of knowledgeregarding the planning steps of UGI in existing cities. In addition, the comparison between thestudies that tackle the subject point out that there are differences between the definition and sequenceof these steps. The current research aims to find out the optimal planning steps of UGI and the mostacceptable sequence of the planning process for climate change smart adaptation in existing cities.By using the methodology of “learning by doing”, the research seeks to conclude these steps from theworld’s real practices. A cross-case analysis was conducted between four main practices to define therelationship between their planning steps and determine their similarities and differences. The crossanalysisrevealed that the practices almost followed similar processes but with different definitionsand sequences of planning steps. Based on the intersections between practices and by following theplanning logic, the optimal definition and sequence of UGI planning were extracted and outlinedin “seven planning steps”. These steps include: providing the precise identification of the impact,identifying the higher-risk neighborhoods, collecting data about the existing conditions, protectingand enhancing existing green and blue elements, adding new UGI assets, drawing the results, andfinally calculating the UGI effectiveness. This set of steps can guide the whole process of UGI planningand ensure the maximum benefits of employing it in existing cities to achieve the climate changesmart adaptation.