Green Infrastructure
Green Infrastructure is a strategically planned network of high quality natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features, which is designed and managed to provide diversity of ecosystem services and protect biodiversity in both rural and urban settings.
More specifically it aims to improve nature’s ability to deliver multiple valuable ecosystem goods and services, such as clean air or water. This subsequently:
- Delivers better quality of life and human well-being, for instance by providing a high quality environment in which to live and work
- Improves biodiversity, for example by reconnecting isolated nature areas and enhancing the mobility of wildlife across wider landscapes
- Protects us against climate change and other environmental disasters, for example by reducing flooding, storing carbon or preventing soil erosion
- Encourages a smarter, integrated approach to development which ensures that Europe’s limited space is used in as efficient and coherent a way as possible
- One of the primary benefits of Green Infrastructure is its ability to perform several functions in the same spatial area. In contrast to most ‘grey’ infrastructures, which usually have only one single objective, GI is multifunctional, helping to promote win-win solutions
To live sustainably we must take full account of the environmental effect of our resource use and consumption patterns. Since almost three-quarters of the world live in cities, cities are the obvious place to start making positive environmental changes.
Upload to this page

Add your photos, text, videos, etc. to this page.
Map Search
Related Libraries
Content
Ireland's Environment
- Ireland's Environment Overview
- Environmental Governance
- Air Quality
- Biodiversity
- Water
- The Built Environment
- Unsustainable Development
- Pressures on the Environment from Urban Living
- Pressures on the Environment from Rural Living
- The Importance of Planning, and Abiding by the Plan
- Buildings that Last a Long Time
- Insulation and Energy Resource Use
- Asbestos Materials
- Green Infrastructure
- Building Regulations
- How You Can Help
- Public Consultations
- Waste Management
- Aarhus Convention
- Noise
- Climate Change
- Health and Wellbeing
- Featured Articles
- ENFOpoints
- County Focus
- Environmental Awareness Initiatives
- Education, Training & Exhibitions
- Public Consultations & Review Procedure
- Environmental Impact Statements
- Who Does What?
- Energy Resources: Renewable and Non-Renewable
- Environmental Assessment
- Forestry
- Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
- Local Authority Environmental Enforcement
- Mineral Extraction
- Peatlands