Green Infrastructure: connected and multifunctional landscapes

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Green Infrastructure connected and
multifunctional landscapes
Annie Coombs FLI
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Contents

• Position Statement preparation
• Origins, Definitions, Chronology
• Funding
• Benefits
• Assets, Resource
• Functions, Approach, Scale
• Strategies
• South Essex Thurrocks Green Grid
• PUSH
• Principles and Approach
• Landscape Profession
• The Mersey Forest / Weaver Valley

Photos throughout illustrate green infrastructure
designed, managed, assessed, studied by landscape
architects.
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• Position Statement

• LI Policy Committee recommended topics
• GI seen very much as the province of the
  landscape profession
• Small working group
• Call for case studies and comments on text from
  all LI members
• Sub-group met to decide on case studies
• Edits to text
• Reviewed by Executive Committee and critical
  friends
• Launched (May 2009)
• Use (lobbying, consultation responses etc)

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Can I congratulate the Landscape Institute on
the position statement for Green Infrastructure. 
With so many simplifications and
misunderstandings as to what GI really offers,
this statement is clear, lacking waffle and
usable.
My planning colleagues who are currently
preparing the Councils GI SPD as part of the
Core Strategy think it looks excellent and would
like to use it as part of the launch and
publicity of the Borough's GI policy
Download or buy from www.landscapeinstitute.org/
policy
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Origin of the term GI

• Ed McMahon
• Green space is not an amenity, its a
  necessity.
• This is the phrase that underpins his concept of
  green infrastructure.
• We coined the term to reposition the idea for
  the public, explaining that the idea itself is
  not a new one.

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Definitions (1)

• Explosion of interest doesnt equate to increased
  understanding
• GI is term that can mean different things to
  different people
• A number of definitions available
• Significant common ground within the available
  definitions
• GI involves natural and managed green areas in
  both urban and rural settings
• GI is about the strategic connection of open
  green areas and
• GI should provide multiple benefits for people
  (public benefit).
• www.greeninfrastructure.eu

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Definitions (2) Milton Keynes

• A planned network of multifunctional
  green-spaces and interconnecting links, which is
  designed, developed and managed to meet the
  environmental, social and economic needs of
  communities across the sub-region. It is set
  within, and contributes to a high quality natural
  and built environment and is required to enhance
  the quality of life for the present and future
  residents and visitors and to deliver liveability
  for sustainable communities.
• Planning Sustainable Communities A green
  infrastructure guide for Milton Keynes and the
  South Midlands

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Definitions (3)Natural England

• Green Infrastructure (GI) is a strategically
  planned and delivered network of high quality
  green spaces and other environmental features. It
  should be designed and managed as a
  multifunctional resource capable of delivering a
  wide range of environmental and quality of life
  benefits for local communities. Green
  Infrastructure includes parks, open spaces,
  playing fields, woodlands, allotments and private
  gardens.
• www.naturalengland.org.uk

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Definitions (4) Northwest Region

• Green Infrastructure is the Regions life
  support system the network of natural
  environmental components and green and blue
  spaces that lies within and between the
  Northwests cities, towns and villages and which
  provides multiple social, economic and
  environmental benefits
• www.greeninfrastructurenw.co.uk

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Definitions (5)

• Green infrastructure is the physical
  environment within and between our cities, towns
  and villages. It is a network of multi-functional
  open spaces, including formal parks, gardens,
  woodlands, green corridors, waterways, street
  trees and open countryside. It comprises all
  environmental resources, and thus a green
  infrastructure approach also contributes towards
  sustainable resource management.
• www.greeninfrastucture.eu

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European Landscape Convention (ELC)

• Article 1 of the ELC states
• Landscape means an area, as perceived by
  people, whose character is the result of the
  action and interaction of natural and/or human
  factors. The term landscape is thus defined as
  a zone or area as perceived by local people or
  visitors, whose visual features and character are
  the result of the action of natural and/or
  cultural (that is, human) factors. This
  definition reflects the idea that landscapes
  evolve through time, as a result of being acted
  upon by natural forces and human beings. It also
  underlines that a landscape forms a whole, whose
  natural and cultural components are taken
  together, not separately.

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GI Chronology

• Victorian Parks and city fathers
• Frederick Law Olmstead (Central Park etc)
• Garden cities movement
• 1947 Acts (green belt, national parks, AONBs)
• New Towns movement
• Ian McHarg Design with Nature
• Regional Parks
• Groundwork Trust
• Community forests, National forests
• Ed McMahon coins the phrase GI
• PPG17, green flag, open space strategies
• Increasing use of GIS
• Growth points, ecotowns, city regions
• European Landscape Convention (ELC)
• Regional Spatial Strategy policy (NW)
• Forthcoming planning policy on GI (England)

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GI funding

• CABE Natural England
• call on local and central government to set new
  priorities for funding high-quality GI,
  highlighting the imbalance between investment in
  green grey infrastructures.
• say towns and cities could be transformed if GI
  receives a fraction of the public investment made
  in other areas.
• suggest the governments green stimulus package
  for low carbon housing be extended to incorporate
  GI as part of a wider move to target public
  expenditure on greening cities.

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GI funding (2)

• A switch of public spending from grey to green
  infrastructure would trigger an environmental
  revolution. At a time when investment in grey
  infrastructure, such as the new road building and
  road improvement programmes, runs into billions,
  investment in green infrastructure remains tiny.
  We have to redesign our cities in response to the
  imperative of climate change, and this means
  investment in hundreds of thousands of green
  roofs, millions more street trees, more parks,
  and new urban greenways.
• Richard Simmons, CABEs chief executive

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Funding Royal Parks

• 2,000 hectares historical parkland
• Demand-led funding approach
• Central gov income generation
• Contribution to environment, society economy
• Multifunctionality brings benefits
• Health well-being
• Tourism economic value
• Formal recreation play
• Community events
• Ecology biodiversity
• Water management
• Heritage
• Climate change adaptation mitigation
• Amenity value

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• Benefits

• Climate change adaptation
• Climate change mitigation
• Water management
• Dealing with waste
• Food production
• Biodiversity enhancement
• Economic value
• Local distinctiveness
• Education
• Health and recreation
• Stronger communities

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Economic benefits of GI

• Flood alleviation water management
• Economic growth investment
• Tourism
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation
• Quality of place
• Health well-being
• Land property values
• Labour productivity
• Recreation and leisure
• Land biodiversity
• Products from the land
• www.nwda.co.uk/pdf/EconomicValueofGreenInfrastruct
  ure.pdf

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GI assets resource

• GI assets are
• Particular areas of land and water
• Serve one or more functions of public benefit by
  virtue of
• Use
• Location
• Intrinsic value
• Multifunctionality
• GI resource is a collective of
• open spaces, public places, rivers coast,
  farmland, woodlands, natural elements gardens.

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GI functions (the case for GI)

• Stimulating sport, recreation play
• Improving health
• Sustaining biodiversity
• Protecting soil, water natural resources
• Buffering extreme weather events
• Providing a comfortable urban environment
• Creating distinctive settings
• Improving coast and water quality
• Sustaining cultural and historical places
• Stimulating business and regeneration
• Creating meeting points for cohesive societies
• Inspiring community environmental stewardship
• Maintaining productive rural landscapes.

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GI approach

• Wide range of functions
• Have a vision
• Unlock maximum of benefits
• Demand more from the land
• Manage conflicting demands
• Retain single/limited land use functions in some
  areas
• Ecosystem services
• Support (necessary for all soils,
  photosynthesis etc)
• Provision (food, fuel ..)
• Regulations (air/water quality, erosion)
• Culture (aesthetics, heritage, recreation)

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GI Scales Neighbourhood

• Street Trees / Home Zones
• Roof Gardens ( Green Roofs)
• Pocket Parks
• Collective / Private Gardens
• Urban Plazas
• Village Greens
• Local Rights of Way
• Dedicated Gardens / Cemeteries
• Institutional Open Spaces
• Ponds small woodlands
• Play Areas
• Local Nature Reserves

Neighbourhood Scale
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GI Scales Town/city/district

• City Parks
• Urban Canals Waterways
• Green Networks
• Multi-user routes
• Urban Commons
• Forest Parks
• Country Parks / Estates
• Continuous waterfront
• Municipal / Cathedral Plazas
• Lakes
• Major recreational spaces
• Landmarks Vistas Gateways

Town / City /District Scale
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GI Scales City-region

• Regional Parks
• Rivers floodplains
• Shoreline Waterfront
• Strategic Long-distance Trails
• Major (gt100ha) woodlands
• Community Forests
• Open Access Sites
• Landmarks Vistas
• Reservoirs
• Environmental Management Initiatives
• Strategic Corridors Gateways

City-regional Scale
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GI Scales Strategic

• Coastline Management Planning
• Cross-boundary green networks (e.g. South Downs
  New Forest linkages
• Strategic River Catchment Plans
• National Trails Destinations
• Strategic Infrastructure corridors
• Sub-regional strategies
• National policy statements
• Behavioural Societal Change

Strategic Scale
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GI Strategies

• Need to operate at the relevant scale / level
• Sub-regional and regional
• Embed across a range of policies / strategies
• Robust and flexible enough to react to political
  change - Tories committed to remove the English
  RDAs and wider bonfire of the quangos

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Thames Gateway
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South Essex Grid
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Thurrocks Green Grid Strategy

• TGGS developed in the context of the wider South
  Essex Green Grid (SEGG)
• Used its own technical research (biodiversity,
  green infrastructure, landscape and urban
  capacity, flood risk, green belt review and open
  space) to tackle overarching themes and
  principles laid out in SEGG and other strategic
  plans (the Greening the Gateway plan, Thames
  Gateway interim plan and Essex county plans).
• TGGS provides a finer grain framework than SEGG
  and gives expression to the aspirations of a wide
  range of partners and Thurrocks own communities
  via its community strategy.
• It will be developed into SPD.

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Thurrocks GI Green Grid


Biodiversity
Open space
Green infrastructure

SPD
Green grid
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GI Strategy for Urban South Hampshire

• PUSH Partnership for Urban South Hampshire
  identified GI as critical to support sub-regions
  development
• Polycentric urban region Portsmouth,
  Southampton, Fareham, Gosport, Eastleigh other
  settlements
• 1 million existing population - new growth point
  brownfield, urban infill greenfield needed to
  deliver 80,000 new homes
• Undertook
• an appreciation of the drivers for change
• environmental quality and condition assessment
  (including landscape character)
• Analysis of community attributes
• Gap analysis of GI strategy with other
  initiatives
• Vision and values with stakeholders
• Threats and opportunities

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Public Benefit

• Central to the research was the areas social,
  environmental and economic characteristics
• Potential for GI to address the deficits and
  deliver benefits in relation to
• Enjoying and protecting the special qualities of
  the environment
• Restoring/enhancing environments degraded, in
  decline or at risk
• Community needs and aspirations
• Economic prosperity
• Used GIS to bring together datasets and represent
  spatially the areas in need and the multiple
  benefits

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PUSH Public Benefit
High numbers of old, young unhealthy
Moderate numbers of old, young unhealthy
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Community needs

• Needs are greatest near the urban areas based on
  deprivation, age, risk of adverse environmental
  quality etc
• Potential for delivering community needs is a
  more diffuse picture widespread opportunity for
  GI to deliver functions

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PUSH Functional Strategies

• Stakeholders identified themes reflecting
  priorities
• Key quality of life issues for the area led to 8
  headline themes
• Each comprised a range of GI functions
• Led to development of functional strategies
• Biodiversity
• Coast and Water
• Green Access and Movement
• Parks for the Future
• Working Landscapes
• Landscape Culture and Heritage.

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Example of GI principles

• Contribute to management, enhancement,
  conservation of local landscape
• Contribute to protection conservation of
  historic, archaeological, built heritage
• Maintain and enhance biodiversity
• Provide connectivity, avoid fragmentation
• Be designed to facilitate sustainable long-term
  management
• Create new recreation facilities
• Link town and country
• Take account of natural systems
• Designed to high standards
• Provide for social inclusion, community
  development and life-long learning.

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Roles of landscape professionals

• Multidisciplinary approach
• All scales
• Contributing to
• Policy guidance
• Strategies
• Local Development Frameworks
• Character/Sensitivity studies
• Development control
• Environmental assessment
• Masterplanning
• Design and implementation
• Management
• Research
• Facilitation creative engagement

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The Mersey Forest

• The North West GI Guide sets out a 5-stage
  process for green infrastructure planning
• Partnership and priorities
• Data audit and green infrastructure resource
  mapping
• Functional assessment
• Needs assessment
• Intervention plan.

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1. Partnership priorities

• The Mersey Forest Delivery Plan 2009 - 2014
• Goals delivered achieve partners objectives
• Public service agreements
• Local Area Agreements
• Local Authority strategies (health, education,
  open space, regeneration..)
• Regional Forestry Framework
• Regional Spatial Strategy
• Regional Climate Change Action Plan
• Regional Economic Strategy.
• Gross Value Added (GVA)
• Developing ways to assess Mersey Forest
  achievements against partners monitoring targets
  of outcomes and outputs.

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2. Resource mapping Types

• general amenity space
• outdoor sports facilities
• woodland
• water courses
• water bodies
• grassland, heathland moorland
• coastal habitat
• agricultural land
• allotments, community gardens urban farms
• cemeteries, churchyards burial grounds
• derelict land
• private domestic gardens
• trees
• institutional grounds
• wetlands
• other?? (e.g. verges)
• orchard street trees

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3. GI functions(Cheshire sub-region)

• recreation - public
• recreation - private
• green travel route
• aesthetic
• water storage
• water interception
• water infiltration / natural drainage
• storm protection - coastal
• shading from sun
• evaporative cooling
• trapping pollutants
• noise absorption

• habitat for wildlife
• corridor for wildlife
• soil stabilisation
• heritage
• cultural asset
• carbon storage
• food production
• timber production
• biofuels production
• water supply
• wind shelter
• learning

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3. 4. GI Functions definition need

• recreation public
• DEFINITION area anyone can use without having to
  pay or get keys
• GREATEST NEED high population density (present
  future), low population mobility, poor health,
  much leisure time
• water storage
• DEFINITION Stores flood waters.
• GREATEST NEED upstream of urban areas
  intersecting flood plains
• shading from sun
• DEFINITION Shading of people, buildings, and
  surfaces from solar radiation.
• GREATEST NEED high population density (present
  future), high quality agricultural land, schools,
  shopping areas, visitor attractions

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3. Functions Mouth of the Weaver
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Mouth of the Weaver
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What you can do....

• Raise awareness about GI
• Lobby planning system at all levels
• Adopt a multi-disciplinary approach
• Press for vision for the natural environment and
  functions
• Ignore administrative boundaries promote ELC
  landscape definition
• Promote advance consideration GI often needed
  before growth (levies)
• Make the case for revenue as well as capital
  expenditure
• Argue for investment in management
• Communicate the benefits
• Involve the private sector
• Provide case studies to the LI library.

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Photo credits

• Giles Barnard
• Bill Blackledge
• Cheshire East
• Cheshire West and Chester
• Annie Coombs
• Chris Driver
• Gillespies
• Groundwork
• Gustafsson Porter
• HED
• Andy Lane
• North Lincolnshire Council
• ODA
• Place Design Planning Ltd
• Mike Roberts
• TEP
• Townshend Landscape Architects
• Karen Wright Photography

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Thank you for listening