Updated method of aptitude to sustainable urban development for including green infrastructure

Abstract

The research group UDR F. Eiximenis of Dpt of Urban Planning of Polytechnic University of Valencia, developed in 1992 the Method of Aptitude to Sustainable Urban Development. The method allows the identification of more or less adequate rural zones of Valencia region to transform for urban uses. The Valencia country is a Mediterranean landscape that is characterized by a mosaic of diverse rural and urban uses. The method is based on applying the concept of aptitude as a synthesis of the concepts of capacity and vulnerability of the territory to the residential, industrial and strategic public facilities. The method uses GIS technology as a tool for generating maps of adequate zones for uses with an analysis based on objective reasons that explain the outcome. Explicitly avoiding evaluation based on any types of weighted average of heterogeneous values of variables. The method has been applied in the assessment of environmental impacts caused by urban development in Valencia until today. Now arises the European policy to implement the concept of green infrastructure. The current planning and territorial policy in Valencia establishes the need to identify green infrastructure as a first step in the urban planning processes. The present paper develops a proposal for updating the method to sustainable urban development incorporating the concept of green infrastructure.