Research projects

The EU-Commission and Germany actively foster the green infrastructure (GI) strategy on all levels of spatial planning. Ecosystem services (ES) and nature-based solutions (NbS) go hand in hand with the objectives of the GI concept. In Germany and China, the integration of climate adaptation and climate protection in GI planning is a fundamental target for sustainable urban development. It still requires adequate understanding of context-specific drivers and challenges, on the one hand, and effective transfer of knowledge from science to policy making on the other. The general objective of this research project is to translate the ES framework into real spatial planning of GI based on an analysis of the green governance in Chinese in comparison to German cities. Therefore, the research aims at three major project outcomes: i) an outline of formal and informal instruments and institutions to introduce or back up Green infrastructure planning in city environments, ii) an innovative, spatially explicit, and ready to use method to assess GI development in spatial planning, which is based in current cutting edge research on urban ecosystem services; iii) a spatially explicit toolbox to evaluate trade-offs for different urban development scenarios.

The project comprises three consecutive parts (Definition phase, Research & Development and Implementation phase; in short: DP, R&DP, IP). The DP fokusses problem related issues of governance with respect to Green Infrastructure (GI) in cities of both countries. Typical contexts and challenges for planning are reviewed and tasks will subsequently be derived on the basis of literature review and interviews with practitioners and from planning disciplines. In a parallel approach, methodological conceptualization is to be elaborated regarding synergies and trade-offs of ecosystem services (ES).

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