Ensuring nature is mainstreamed into planning policy

A consistent weakness of urban planning policy and decision-making is the dilution of policies for nature in development plans for towns and cities. Green Infrastructure (GI), for example parks, rivers, trees and hedges, are often given lower priority than ‘grey infrastructure’ associated with housing, transport and economic development. Professor Alister Scott from the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences has championed the benefits of including GI in urban areas, which include improved health and well-being of residents, biodiversity and flood risk regulation, and is now working with planners to ‘mainstream’ GI into policy and decision-making processes and outcomes to ensure it is not neglected in the future.Read blog here