Bruxelles: adopted a new strategy to relaunch Green Infrastructure
The European Commission has recently adopted a new strategy to relaunch the Green Infrastructure. Green infrastructure is a well-tried tool, the use of nature provides ecological, economic and social benefits. Instead of building flood protection infrastructure, for example, a green infrastructure solution would be to allow a natural wetland to absorb the excess water from heavy rain. Green infrastructure is often cheaper and more durable than alternatives provided through conventional civil engineering. This initiative is aiming at ensuring that the enhancement of natural processes becomes a systematic part of spatial planning. One of the most effective ways of building a green infrastructure is to adopt a more integrated approach to land management. This, in turn, is best achieved through strategic level spatial planning which enables spatial interactions between different land uses to be investigated over a large geographical area. The new strategy will deal with the following items: promoting green infrastructure in the main policy areas; improving research and data, strengthening the knowledge base and promoting innovative technologies that support green infrastructure; improving access to finance for green infrastructure projects; supporting EU-level Green Infrastructure projects. By the end of 2017, the Commission will publish a report on the lessons learned together with recommendations for future action