What is Green Infrastructure?

The Landscape Institute defines Green Infrastructure (GI) as:

"the network of natural and semi-natural features, green spaces, rivers and lakes that intersperse and connect villages, towns and cities. It is a natural, service-providing infrastructure that is often more cost-effective, more resilient and more capable of meeting social, environmental and economic objectives than 'grey' infrastructure."

GI is an approach to planning, from regional to site scales, which recognises and makes best use of natural resources.

It is related to concepts such as Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital Accounting (which recognise and quantify the multiple benefits provided by natural resources).

Why use Green Infrastructure?

Green Infrastructure is increasingly becoming a standard requirement, in statutory Local Plans, which applies to all development projects. GI is fundamental to achieving Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), which is now mandatory for all development in England: Developers must deliver a BNG of 10%.

GI and BNG legislation require development teams to think of landscape not only in aesthetic terms but also as a vital component of living landscapes and liveable cities.

This is realised through awareness and utilisation of techniques such as sustainable drainage (SuDS), natural flood management (NFM), and the value of existing ecological corridors and habitats on a site. It also draws upon Urban Forestry principles, as healthy and growing urban tree populations are vital in dealing with climate change effects. The result will be a richer and more beautiful environment which serves ours and nature's needs.

Why 2B?

We strongly believe in maximising the sustainability benefits - which are present in all forms of development and change - for our clients and the wider community.

Green infrastructure is implicit in our holistic approach as landscape architects, and is supported by our professional body, the Landscape Institute, which has published guidance on the subject. We provide a pragmatic professional service which draws together the multiple benefits of GI into a cohesive approach to site design. To supplement our own skills, we are also able to draw upon experts in the fields of Green Infrastructure, Biodiversity Net Gain, and Urban Forestry.

2B responded swiftly to our call for urgent design work and created a range of very high quality graphics and visualisation at short notice. Communication was excellent. They suggested interesting ideas that resulted in an enhanced end product. They know their stuff and are passionate about what they do, which made working with the 2B team a really great experience.

Paul

York Community Woodland project manager, City of York Council

Case studies

2B presentation to ERYC Planners
2B presentation to ERYC Planners

We were delighted to be invited to provide a presentation to East Riding Planners on the subject of "Achieving Green Infrastructure through the planning system". It was a pleasure to report that Green Infrastructure features strongly ERYC's forthcoming Local Plan - although all departments (eg recreation and highways) need to embrace the principles to enable GI to happen within developments.

2B presentation to ERYC Planners

This diagram explains some of the multiple benefits of Green Infrastructure and the ways in which it can be implemented.

2B presentation to ERYC Planners

Here we look at a part of the Hull - East Riding boundary and examine how and where the GI benefits could be applied. This area has flooded badly in recent years and, although major flood alleviation works are in progress, they are missing out on the many possible benefits of a more comprehensive GI approach.

Mersey Life Green Infrastructure
Mersey Life Green Infrastructure

Green Infrastructure has the potential to be a huge driver for substantial environmental and social improvements in town and country. Mersey Life (see also Master Planning) was a JBA / Environment Agency project exploring the relationships of deprivation, natural opportunity and enhancement.

Mersey Life Green Infrastructure

We see from the above plan that Warrington has a beneficial relationship between green spaces (including significant nature conservation assets) and socially deprived areas (red in the plan). The obvious green wedge forms a marvellous foundation for natural enhancement of the deprived urban area.

Mersey Life Green Infrastructure

This view along one of the tributaries of the Mersey shows the potential: imagine if all walking and cycling links could share some of this character. Health benefits, like improved air quality, opportunity for exercise and well-being, are amongst the multiple benefits of Green Infrastructure (GI). In turn, GI often anticipates substantial planting programmes to enhance urban-rural linkages and to improve biodiversity and social and economic well-being.

South Humber Bank
South Humber Bank - planting mitigation for NGC

The largest planting project we have been involved in, this was planting mitigation on a huge scale, designed to reduce the effects of a new overhead transmission line. Roadsides and hedgerows were planted or improved across a 30km stretch of North Lincolnshire. The above plan covers around 6km. Such plans were converted to detailed CAD drawings for contract purposes.