The Green City: General Concept

Abstract

The Green City is a city that is “in balance with nature”, where all forms of nature—from living organisms to their habitats—are highly significant components of the urban form and part of a green infrastructure. In a Green City, all forms of nature are respected, maintained and extended for the benefit of city residents. Urban nature is seen as an ideal provider of services and a key concept for city development. Almost all types of urban spaces are host to urban nature—either random (“wild”) or introduced by human decisions (e.g. trees, plantations). These areas are either actively used (e.g. meadows, grazeland, parks, gardens, urban forests, etc.) or are abandoned from their previous use (e.g. brownfields or certain wetlands and forests). Urban green infrastructure can be understood as a network of all urban natural elements—either close to nature or designed green space can be a planning relevant category. The concept of urban green infrastructure is thus exemplary for strategic and integrated planning, protection, development and management of urban nature. This requires city-wide, district-based and object-based spatial concepts.