A structured analysis of green infrastructure as a pathway to improve city resilience and promote sustainable urban development

Jackie D Parker

This thesis critically examines the roles, opportunities, and arguments for green infrastructure and nature-based solutions, and specifically their contribution in addressing the decline in psychological and physiological human health and the impacts of climate change in urban environments. This thesis considers this in the context of urban development, sustainable development practices, population growth, and predictions of environmental change. It is the intention of this thesis to provide a set of contributions for academic, government, and practitioner use, to support the progression, and increase the implementation rates, of green infrastructure and nature-based solutions. This thesis is comprised of six chapters. Chapter 1 contains a general introduction to the urban challenges being addressed and describes the ontology and epistemology of the structured analysis approach used within this thesis. Chapter 2 provides a systematic quantitative literature review to assess the current literature in the area of green infrastructure with particular emphasis on that pertaining to the urban environment. This chapter found that the research discipline is in a state of infancy and is expanding rapidly. This chapter detected issues around the articulation the definition of green infrastructure, a Western influence in the current literature, and a spread in the typology of the research. Chapter 3 assesses the opportunities, contributions, and interconnectedness that Urban Resilience Theory and Human Nature Connection Theory share with green infrastructure when approaching the challenges of human health decline and climate change. This chapter demonstrates the applicability of green infrastructure for the provision of planning, policy, multi-level government employment, and supports the high suitability of green infrastructure for implementation in the approach to addressing the challenges as presented within this thesis. Chapter 4 tests the theoretical basis provided in the preceding chapters and develops and tests a novel tool to demonstrate the process and methodology of improving the quantification and qualification of green infrastructure using urban tree canopies as an example. In addition to the novel tool, this chapter documents a best-practice approach to the consultation, construction and theoretical testing of such an approach that contributes to the quantification and qualification of green infrastructure assets to support its enhanced implementation. Chapter 5 addresses the limitations discovered in the preceding literature by assessing and confirming green infrastructure and nature-based solutions as a suitable response to urban development challenges exacerbated by climate change and a warming climate. This chapter provides a novel hierarchical approach to address the articulation and categorisation of green infrastructure and nature-based solution assets to remove this identified weak point. Chapter 6 concludes this thesis by synthesising the findings of the preceding chapters in terms or how they fit within the current literature and suggests future research directions. The thesis research questions pertain to how green infrastructure and nature-based solutions can become better understood, supported, and utilised in responding to the wicked problem of declining psychological and physiological health and climate change within the urban environment more broadly. This thesis presents significant ground gained and is evidenced by four published chapters (chapters 2 through 5) being accepted into Q1 and Q2 journals.

A structured analysis of green infrastructure as a pathway to improve city resilience and promote sustainable urban development

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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