Blue-green Infrastructure

Blue-green infrastructure (BGI) can be understood as a hybrid network of natural or semi-natural infrastructure of blue-green space and built systems, e.g. forests, wetlands, rivers, parks, green roofs, green walls and bioretention ponds. They can contribute to ecosystem resilience and human well-being through ecosystem services, which are considered a widely adopted and effective approach for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Besides of adaptation to climate change, urban climate resilience also focuses on strengthening a city’s overall capacity to systematically anticipate, absorb and reorganize itself to known and unknown threats, which emphasizes the initiative and learning capacity of urban systems. BGI helps enhance urban climate resilience in responding to urban floods, sea level rise, high temperature and heat waves. The common functioning mechanisms include the bio-physical properties of BGI, forming modular units with other infrastructures of similar functions, and the reliance on networked structures to help the system to restore its physical functions and social connections as quickly as possible after disturbances and attacks.

Edited and Translated by Zhang Yifei