Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration (2020) 5:40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41207-020-00178-8 TOPICAL COLLECTION Designing a green infrastructure network for metropolitan areas: a spatial planning approach Georgia Pozoukidou 1 Received: 22 December 2019 / Accepted: 20 June 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 Abstract Climate change and environmental pressures in urban areas have created the need for new concepts and tools for the man- agement of urban development that ensure the protection of natural and cultural resources while also enhancing urban resil- ience. Green infrastructure (GI) is often associated with sustainable goals that cities strive to achieve through a combination of natural approaches. A key concept in these approaches is the inherent capacity of the natural environment to carry out several functions, meaning that it can provide a variety of ecosystem services and deliver a wide range of policy objectives. Nevertheless, recent studies on the integration of GI into spatial planning have reported limited acknowledgement of the ecosystem services that GI can ofer and a lack of a territorial perspective. This paper therefore provides a methodology that facilitates a spatial planning approach to GI planning in metropolitan areas. Based on the defnition of GI proposed by the European Commission, which suggests that connectivity and multifunctionality are key to the efective implementation of GI, a two-step methodological approach to GI planning is proposed. This approach is spatially centered, thus promoting the desired territorial perspective, while it also acknowledges the notion of an ecosystem service as a basic design principle. When applied to the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki in Greece, the methodology was found to facilitate the prioritization of competing planning priorities and to promote certain planning objectives, thus enhancing urban resilience and helping to improve the efciency of land and resource use. Keywords Green infrastructure · Spatial planning · Ecosystem services · Functional assessment Green infrastructure and spatial planning Interest from researchers in including green infrastructure (GI) in spatial planning has grown rapidly over the last two decades. This is due to the fact that climate change and envi- ronmental pressures in urban areas have created a need for new concepts and tools for managing urban development in a manner that protects natural and cultural resources and enhances urban resilience (Ahern 2007; Foster et al. 2011; Beatley 2000). The main aim of GI is to enhance the health and resil- ience of ecosystems while simultaneously ensuring that they provide a wide variety of societal benefts through nature- based solutions. The original GI concept had its roots in ecosystem conservation eforts, so GI was defned as parks, forests, wetlands, green zones, and food zones in and around cities—any area that enhances quality of life or provides ecosystem services (e.g., water fltration and food control). However, GI has recently acquired new roles that are often related to the environmental or sustainability goals that cities strive to achieve through a combination of natural approaches (Foster et al. 2011). In 2013, the European Commission (EC) put forward a GI strategy to ensure that the protection, restoration, creation, and enhancement of GI become standard and integral parts of spatial planning and territorial development whenever they complement or ofer a better alternative to standard gray choices (European Commission 2013). The benefts of GI and its potential contribution to the implementation of various policies are now recognized. These benefts occur because implementing GI requires an integrated view of ecosystem services, which in turn encourages a balanced Communicated by Dimitra Vagiona, Lead Guest Editor. * Georgia Pozoukidou gpozoukid@plandevel.auth.gr 1 Faculty of Engineering, School of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece