Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4.1
Green infrastructure: potential assets at three scales. (Source: Re-ordered from table in:
Green Infra-Structure and Territorial Cohesion. EEA Technical Report, 18, 2011, p. 7)
Local, neighbourhood, village
Town, city, district
City-region to national
Local Urban Plazas
Municipal plazas
Business settings
Road & rail networks
Street trees, verges, hedges
Green roofs and walls
Private gardens
Greens and commons
Urban commons
Common lands
Allotments (Community
gardens)
Cemeteries, churchyards
Institutional open spaces
Play areas
School grounds
Sport pitches
Major recreational spaces
Pedestrian & cycle routes
Long distance trials
Local rights of way
Community woodlands
Small woodlands
Forest parks
Woodlands, Forests
Pocket parks
City or district parks
Country parks
Regional parks
Urban canals
Canals
Swales (grassed), ditches
Ponds and streams
Rivers and flood plains
Rivers and flood plains
Continuous waterfronts
Shorelines
Lakes
Reservoirs
Local nature reserves
Green belts/strategic gaps/
national parks
Vacant and derelict land
Old extraction sites
Landfills
Brownfield land
Agricultural land
Ogricultural land
open countryside
resilience of ecosystems…(one that is) …central to the overall objective of ecosystem res-
toration. (EEA
2011a
, p. 6)
This means that the objective of the approach, like recent parallel research from
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is not simply to inventory the green
assets. Rather it is multi-functional, emphasising the need not only for connections
between the various elements, but their strengthening and potential uses in order to
develop the multiple environmental benefits of these spaces in support of greater
sustainability. In doing so it recognizes the various policies, services, tools and tech-
niques used on the elements may vary at different scales.
