Growing Green Infrastructure in Contemporary Asian Cities examines to what extent green infrastructure (GI) is being implemented in East and Southeast Asian cities. The book reflects upon the integration of contemporary approaches to landscape planning alongside traditional forms of green space design and cultural understandings of the landscape in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. Working from a multi-locational perspective, the book illustrates how political, socio-cultural, economic, and ecological factors influence the delivery of GI and the consequences of these decisions. The book provides a set of best practice recommendations for the design, development, and management of greener urban areas. It both explains how GI is being utilised in East and Southeast Asia to address climate change, promote economic prosperity, and support the development of more livable places, and identifies future trends in its use. It is a key resource for any practitioners, students, and academics working in landscape planning and green infrastructure in an Asian context.

Urban planners across the world are faced with sustainable development issues in their work, especially when they are tasked with creating green cities or where sustainable and smart growth in urban settings are set as primary goals. This book introduces green city planning and practices from the three dimensions of green-building innovation, community development and smart city strategies, and argues that effective implementation of green city planning are a necessary pre-condition for reaching sustainable urban development. A range of authors representing a broad disciplinary spectrum bring together the different standards of green building methods and urban design techniques and clearly sketch the roles of both spatial designers and urban researchers in the implementation of green city planning at regional, community and single-building level in order to arrive at an integrated approach across different scales.

This edited book discusses Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) from conception to implementation in building resilience and urban sustainability. The book emphasizes on infrastructures, institutions, and perceptions as three main pillars of implementing and managing successful BGI, with a special focus on Asia. The book highlights concepts as well as field-based experiences from different parts of Asia by experts, with a special focus on advances and opportunities in advancing BGI, challenges and constraints, followed by case studies on BGI mainstreaming. It addresses sustainable water management, multiscale environmental design, environmental risk assessment, and finally understanding policy implications and concerns for BGI mainstreaming in growing urban sprawls of the region. There has been growing global momentum and recognition of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) as a multifunctional Nature-based Solution (NbS) with multiple co-benefits. There is strong evidence from many urban centres of Europe, USA, China, and South Africa demonstrating that mainstreaming BGI can help in addressing growing vulnerability of urban areas by ensuring safety, resilience, and sustainability for urban residents in the warming world. This book is a timely contribution for researchers, students, scholars, urban planners, consultants, and policy makers in the fields of environment, resilience, urban planning, climate adaptation, and sustainability science.

Several Asian cities have already invested in initiatives to build and promote Green Cities. Owing to the limited capacity of local governments, the funding of urban infrastructure has become a critical issue. Against this background, this book explores a new funding mechanism which demands the engagement of many stakeholders, including public-private partnerships. This book offers guidance on how cities in selected countries can play a key role in the green growth agenda, by stimulating growth through smart investment in urban infrastructure such as through building a physical infrastructure, offering financial and tax incentives, and heightening society’s awareness of a sustainable lifestyle.

Vacant lots, so often seen as neighborhood blight, have the potential to be a key element of community revitalization. Sandra Albro offers practical insights through her experience leading the five-year Vacant to Vibrant project, which piloted the creation of green infrastructure networks in Gary, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. Vacant to Vibrant provides a point of comparison among the three cities as they adapt old systems to new, green technology. Albro offers insights from every step of the Vacant to Vibrant project, including planning, design, community engagement, implementation, and maintenance successes and challenges of creating a green infrastructure network from vacant lots in neighborhoods. Landscape architects and other professionals whose work involves urban greening will learn new approaches for creating infrastructure networks and facilitating more equitable access to green space.

Over the last decade research exploring green infrastructure planning has burgeoned. Transferable green infrastructure messages between locations though are less well established and there remains a visible gap between the conceptual understanding of green infrastructure and its application in practice. Drawing together evaluations of green infrastructure policy-making and practice from across the world Global Green Infrastructure illustrates where successful practices can be identified. Examples from major green infrastructure development areas in the UK, Europe and the USA highlight the variety of investment options that can deliver socio-economic benefits. There is also a growing awareness of the added value of landscape planning in the rapidly developing cities of India and China. Reflecting on ten international case studies Global Green Infrastructure highlights the ways that ecology and engineered solutions can deliver successful urban development. Based on in situ research with the growing community of green infrastructure researchers and practitioners Global Green Infrastructure looks at the contradictions, consensus, and expanding evidence base of successful investments. This book also presents an in-depth commentary on the contemporary approaches to investment in urban greening and green infrastructure, and draws on the lessons we have learnt from a decade of experimentation, delivery and reflection.

This book explores how Asia's fast-growing cities can fulfil their potential as engines of economic prosperity and provide a livable environment for all citizens. But for this to happen, major challenges that reduce urban communities' quality of life and economic opportunities must be addressed. These include poor planning, a lack of affordable housing, inequalities, pollution, climate vulnerabilities, and urban infrastructure deficits. The book's 19 articles unwrap these challenges and present solutions focused on smart and inclusive planning, sustainable transport and energy, innovative financing, and resilience and rejuvenation.