Abstract Body

In the context of large and growing urban populations, there is a pressing need to understand how urban spaces can be sustainably planned, developed and maintained for greatest benefit to people and nature, and how environmental policy in particular can support this. The use of ‘green infrastructure’, as a framing approach for integrating urban green space in to urban decision-making has had significant international impact. This paper seeks to describe the environmental policy narratives across five different urban areas (London and Birmingham in the UK, and Johannesburg, Durban (Ethekwini) and Cape Town in South Africa), reflecting on the way in which these have potentially influenced city-level policies and approaches for urban green infrastructure planning, development and management.

This talk explores the idea that the broader environmental policy context of a city, and its relationship with other policy areas, inevitably shapes their approach to green infrastructure. The study was based on a multi-method approach including analysis of academic papers, technical reports and policy documents, semi-structured interviews and site visits with academics, practitioners (planners, engineers, environmental consultants), policy-makers and local community actors. The two main areas of inquiry and reflection were: 1) Identifying prevailing narratives and priorities in environmental policy at city-level and 2) Outlining current approaches to policy, planning and management for urban green infrastructure. This work has highlighted significant differences in the approach to urban green infrastructure, shaped by the mix of biophysical, social and economic factors that dominate the policy priorities of each of the cities. Insights from this work aim to support decision-makers by understanding the opportunity space for using framings such as ‘green infrastructure’ in urban green space policy.