1.2 The Conceptualisation of Green and Ecological Infrastructures
7
Fig. 1.5 Volunteers removing municipal solid waste from the port of Durban, April 2019. Photo
courtesy of Douw Steyn, Plastics SA
Andresen 2014). Urban planners, therefore, inextricably link water resources to the
objectives of green infrastructures (Naumann et al. 2011), with water insecurity
mitigation being advanced through such interventions.
Although these definitions seem straightforward, green infrastructures means
different things to people (Benedict and McMahon 2002; Roe and Mell 2013),
and they are coupled with various functions. For one stakeholder group, like a
rural community, a green infrastructure could be a food source, while for urban
dwellers, the same infrastructure could act as a buffer against flood surges, or as
a climate change adaptation and mitigation mechanism. This suggests that urban
planners and decision-makers consider green infrastructure policies and projects
from varying perspectives and that they expect different benefits from them. It also
implies an association between green and engineered infrastructures. By so doing,
we can conclude that a green infrastructure is epistemologically rooted in the natural
sciences, with the aim of solving various problems, which is also the case with an
ecological infrastructure.
7
Fig. 1.5 Volunteers removing municipal solid waste from the port of Durban, April 2019. Photo
courtesy of Douw Steyn, Plastics SA
Andresen 2014). Urban planners, therefore, inextricably link water resources to the
objectives of green infrastructures (Naumann et al. 2011), with water insecurity
mitigation being advanced through such interventions.
Although these definitions seem straightforward, green infrastructures means
different things to people (Benedict and McMahon 2002; Roe and Mell 2013),
and they are coupled with various functions. For one stakeholder group, like a
rural community, a green infrastructure could be a food source, while for urban
dwellers, the same infrastructure could act as a buffer against flood surges, or as
a climate change adaptation and mitigation mechanism. This suggests that urban
planners and decision-makers consider green infrastructure policies and projects
from varying perspectives and that they expect different benefits from them. It also
implies an association between green and engineered infrastructures. By so doing,
we can conclude that a green infrastructure is epistemologically rooted in the natural
sciences, with the aim of solving various problems, which is also the case with an
ecological infrastructure.