3.4 Analysis
99
Fig. 3.9 Durban Botanical Gardens
natural, it could be your natural ecosystems, like your artificial wetlands and not your natural
wetlands… In my head, I can [differentiate between a green infrastructure and an ecological
infrastructure], because for me, the green infrastructure incorporates everything that it is;
what would you call ecosystems that are not natural? I don’t know what to call them. These
are your artificial systems. So, in my head I don’t think that the artificial systems are part of
ecological infrastructure, but rather, they are part of a green infrastructure.
When asked about her understanding of a ‘green infrastructure’, Respondent 15,
a lecturer at UKZN, answered in a relativistic way, by linking her understanding to
the SANBI definition (p. 5):
Now I am thinking about the SANBI definition and about the built, non-built, and mimicked
infrastructures. ‘Mimicked’ means when you build an artificial wetland. So, is it an ecological
infrastructure or not? These are the questions I am asking myself so that I can answer the
question. It is linked to the [uMngeni] Catchment.
She continued by saying that:
I am familiar with the term ‘ecological infrastructure’ and haven’t given the term ‘green
infrastructure’ any thought. I don’t know if it would be any different; I would have to
think about it. But if it is meant with the similar idea of environmental services from a
[river] catchment, then it is about all the elements of a catchment, be they terrestrial [e.g.
Figure 3.10] or atmospheric, and that they provide services to people with regard to water
quantity and quality.
From the above, we see that the respondents define green or ecological infrastructures according to their actual experiences in which they work. In this sense, their
reality of what constitutes a green or ecological infrastructure are mental constructs,
together with relativism, that are defined by local and specifically constructed and
co-constructed realities (Lincoln et al. 2018) and which play a central role in their
99
Fig. 3.9 Durban Botanical Gardens
natural, it could be your natural ecosystems, like your artificial wetlands and not your natural
wetlands… In my head, I can [differentiate between a green infrastructure and an ecological
infrastructure], because for me, the green infrastructure incorporates everything that it is;
what would you call ecosystems that are not natural? I don’t know what to call them. These
are your artificial systems. So, in my head I don’t think that the artificial systems are part of
ecological infrastructure, but rather, they are part of a green infrastructure.
When asked about her understanding of a ‘green infrastructure’, Respondent 15,
a lecturer at UKZN, answered in a relativistic way, by linking her understanding to
the SANBI definition (p. 5):
Now I am thinking about the SANBI definition and about the built, non-built, and mimicked
infrastructures. ‘Mimicked’ means when you build an artificial wetland. So, is it an ecological
infrastructure or not? These are the questions I am asking myself so that I can answer the
question. It is linked to the [uMngeni] Catchment.
She continued by saying that:
I am familiar with the term ‘ecological infrastructure’ and haven’t given the term ‘green
infrastructure’ any thought. I don’t know if it would be any different; I would have to
think about it. But if it is meant with the similar idea of environmental services from a
[river] catchment, then it is about all the elements of a catchment, be they terrestrial [e.g.
Figure 3.10] or atmospheric, and that they provide services to people with regard to water
quantity and quality.
From the above, we see that the respondents define green or ecological infrastructures according to their actual experiences in which they work. In this sense, their
reality of what constitutes a green or ecological infrastructure are mental constructs,
together with relativism, that are defined by local and specifically constructed and
co-constructed realities (Lincoln et al. 2018) and which play a central role in their