Research „Urban Green Infrastructure“

Urban Green Infrastructure Planning and Governance in Europe: GREEN SURGE Follow-up study 2020

Urban green infrastructure has emerged as a concept for innovative green space planning and governance. In 2014, the European research project GREEN SURGE gathered data on the state of affairs in green space planning and governance in 20 European cities, revealing the diversity of European cities and their activities but also commonalities such as struggles to protect green spaces from densification, to combat the effects of climate change or for more inclusive and just decision-making processes.

In 2020, public awareness of environmental challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss has risen, increasing the popularity of urban greening and giving tailwind to concepts such as green infrastructure. Against this background, it could be assumed that green space planning and management is also gaining in importance within the municipal system. However, path dependencies, budget and staff shortages, competing spatial claims, and other constraints may prevent stakeholders responsible for urban greening to gain sufficient public support for translating into real changes on the ground.

By reinvestigating the GREEN SURGE case study cities, we will shed light on the question if and how green space planning and governance have changed. The results from the GREEN SURGE project provide a unique opportunity for such a comparison as this study provides the most comprehensive and in-depth information on green space planning and governance of European urban areas to date. Moreover, we address the deficit of longitudinal studies in planning research.

A team of international researchers contribute to project which is coordinated by Hochschule Geisenheim University, Technische Universität München and Wageningen University.

Duration: 07/2020-06/2021