Green infrastructure implementation: perspectives from English planners.

Green infrastructure (GI) has increased in prominence in urban planning due to its environmental, social, and economic benefits. These include climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity enhancement and benefits for human health and well-being. Drawing on research findings from semi-structured qualitative interviews with English planners implementing GI in residential development, this paper aims to explore: the support for GI implementation provided by the policy frameworks; the impacts of the regulatory planning system; and the influence of urban planners’ knowledge and the value they place on GI. Our findings suggest key challenges in implementing GI through the planning process include: lack of policy synchronicity and weak evidence bases, attrition of GI through a discretionary regulatory process and issues with GI competing for recognition and resources within organisations with multiple policy aims. We identify how planners are using their knowledge and value of GI to mitigate these challenges, and that further research is required to explore the development of planning cultures in relation to GI.