GREEN SPACES and GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Landscape Fragmentation and Human Development : Inter-Linking Ecosystem Services
Local Green Spaces and Urban Forests: At Risk Ecosystems
Green spaces and urban forests play a crucial role in the sustainability of ecosystems as they provide important ecological services such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity. They also play vital roles within human interaction and provide many social, economic, psychological, and environmental benefits. The process of urbanisation, particularly peri-urbanisation, impacts green spaces forests in many ways, most notably fragmentation.
The GIPL focusses on urban and urbanising ecosystems in order to document and analyse the important relationships between green spaces, forest fragmentation and human wellbeing through both a multi-scale and multi-disciplinary perspective. These inter-linked perspectives need to be established to inform future design, planning and management decisions.
Ontario Urban Forest
Green Infrastructure holds much potential for the transition toward more sustainable and resilient pathways of urban development. Green spaces sequester and store carbon, filter air pollutants and water, and thus contribute to climate change mitigation. We can turn our urban landscapes into assets for climate resilience, rather than a source of risk
© HBC
Green infrastructure planning and design contributes to conserving and enhancing biodiversity, improving environmental quality, reducing the ecological footprint, adapting cities to climate change, and promoting social cohesion. Green infrastructure provides a pathway towards a green economy.