Abstract
Green infrastructure (GI) is a concept that encompasses a set of treatment technologies aimed at providing an opportunity to reduce the impact of climate change and urbanization by delivering diverse environmental, social, and economic benefits, including flood mitigation, water purification, climate adaptation, carbon sequestration and storage, enhancement of biodiversity, job creation, food production, and generation of spaces for recreation. As such, GI can be a cornerstone of spatial planning strategies intended to restore the health of ecosystems and improve the quality of life of people through a more livable and sustainable environment. GI is at the very heart of nature-based solutions (NBS) policies, which are designed to recover natural processes in cities by deploying properties inherent to natural ecosystems (ecosystem services). Thus, GI systems were initially designed and constructed as sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), also known as Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs), becoming rapidly in multipurpose systems which broadly responded to the NBS goals of sustainability and resilience. The construction of GI is usually based in using high-porosity media and vegetation for enhancing water infiltration, pollutants sequestration, and environmental benefits. Nonstructural GI techniques are normally built up using vegetated surfaces and open-graded aggregate materials, while structural GI systems rely on high-strength surface materials to achieve adequate mechanical performance and maintain infiltration and filtration capacities. Geosynthetics can also be incorporated into GI systems to boost soil stabilization, as well as water purification and retention.
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Acknowledgments
The investigation presented in this chapter was possible thanks to the research project SUPRIS-SUReS (Ref. BIA2015-65240-C2-1-R MINECO/FEDER, UE), financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness with funds from the State General Budget (PGE) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
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Jato-Espino, D., Sañudo-Fontaneda, L.A., Andrés-Valeri, V.C. (2018). Green Infrastructure: Cost-Effective Nature-Based Solutions for Safeguarding the Environment and Protecting Human Health and Well-Being. In: Hussain, C. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Materials Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58538-3_46-1
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