Ecological Infrastructure and Urban Sustainability: Perspectives for City Planning
Abstract
Accelerated urbanization is reshaping the relationship between society and the environment, intensifying tensions among urban growth, sociospatial inequality, and environmental degradation. In this context, urban sustainability transcends administrative boundaries and depends on its articulation with surrounding ecological systems, amid ongoing urban expansion and increasing pressure on resources and peri-urban ecosystems. Green spaces play a central role due to their functions in thermal regulation, air quality improvement, urban cohesion, and well-being; however, their uneven distribution reproduces patterns of sociospatial segregation. Urban planning incorporates the concept of Ecological Infrastructure as networks of interconnected natural, semi-natural, and artificial elements that provide Nature’s Contributions to People and support biodiversity. Urban Ecological Infrastructure integrates urban and peri-urban interventions based on living biophysical processes and includes green and blue infrastructures, such as parks, squares, river corridors, and vegetated systems. These networks sustain Urban Ecosystem Services, including Cultural Ecosystem Services, linked to identity, recreation, spirituality, and social cohesion. Grey infrastructure and ecological infrastructure can be integrated synergistically to optimize urban functioning and ecosystem services, which requires integrated planning that incorporates sustainability, sociospatial equity, and territorial governance.
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