TY - JOUR

T1 - Advancing urban green infrastructure through participatory integrated planning: A case from Slovakia

AU - Vaňo, Simeon

AU - Stahl Olafsson, Anton

AU - Mederly, Peter

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Cities provide a locus for sustainability: they will soon accommodate most of the world’s population, just as increasing environmental and climate emergencies and socio-economic inequalities constitute major challenges. The concept of urban green infrastructure (UGI) offers a greenspace planning approach based on a grounded set of principles to improve the environmental health and liveability of cities. A wide variety of greenspace planning and implementation approaches is already being applied within and across countries. This paper employs UGI as a research lens to critically evaluate planning trends in Slovakia on national, regional and local levels. To this end we have analysed planning documents, interviewed greenspace agents and evaluated local good practice. Our results indicate weak instrumental support for UGI planning, as well as other systemic and procedural barriers to green infrastructure. Moreover, a comparison with observations from other European planning systems reveals notable commonalities and differences. The paper then discusses a local greening programme and bottom-up actions as potential ways to foster green infrastructure development. Local practitioners can initiate important planning processes by employing nature-based practices, engaging with stakeholders and promoting functional approaches. We propose a participatory integrated model that utilises the opportunities embedded in bottom-up actions. Our model can be adopted in higher-level planning and policymaking if appropriate operational and mediating interventions take place.

AB - Cities provide a locus for sustainability: they will soon accommodate most of the world’s population, just as increasing environmental and climate emergencies and socio-economic inequalities constitute major challenges. The concept of urban green infrastructure (UGI) offers a greenspace planning approach based on a grounded set of principles to improve the environmental health and liveability of cities. A wide variety of greenspace planning and implementation approaches is already being applied within and across countries. This paper employs UGI as a research lens to critically evaluate planning trends in Slovakia on national, regional and local levels. To this end we have analysed planning documents, interviewed greenspace agents and evaluated local good practice. Our results indicate weak instrumental support for UGI planning, as well as other systemic and procedural barriers to green infrastructure. Moreover, a comparison with observations from other European planning systems reveals notable commonalities and differences. The paper then discusses a local greening programme and bottom-up actions as potential ways to foster green infrastructure development. Local practitioners can initiate important planning processes by employing nature-based practices, engaging with stakeholders and promoting functional approaches. We propose a participatory integrated model that utilises the opportunities embedded in bottom-up actions. Our model can be adopted in higher-level planning and policymaking if appropriate operational and mediating interventions take place.

KW - GI principles

KW - greenspaces

KW - nature-based solutions

KW - planning systems

KW - stakeholder participation

KW - sustainable cities

U2 - 10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126957

DO - 10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126957

M3 - Tidsskriftartikel

VL - 58

JO - Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

JF - Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

SN - 1618-8667

M1 - 126957

ER -