Green city of the future - climate- resilient neighbourhoods in a growing city Subproject: Analysis of social and economic aspects of green infrastructures

Many German cities experience a significant population growth due to their attractive working and living environment. The consequence is a higher space consumption, triggered by increasing construction activities in the housing and commerce sector and by the development of central infrastructures, i.a. in the mobility sector. The associated phenomenon of densification, primarily in the inner city areas, causes an increased pressure on green and open spaces as well as on the quality of life in our cities. A “green” urban development should therefore address diverse ecological and social challenges and, at the same time, it should create integrated solutions to preserve and improve green infrastructures in our cities.
The joint project “Grüne Stadt der Zukunft” is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of its flagship initiative “Future City” (“Leitinitiative Zukunftsstadt”). The project pursues the overall objective of developing multifunctional and well-connected green infrastructures in compact urban structures. Thereby, it seeks to provide support within urban planning processes. In order to meet these objective suitable integrative solutions that address both climate change adaption and climate mitigation will be designed and tested, having in mind a city landscape becoming more dense. The territorial scope of the project´s investigation focusses on the City of Munich as well as individual city districts selected in the course of the project.
The IÖW contributes an analysis of social and economic aspects of green infrastructures by taking into account a climate resilient inner city development. The work carried out by all project partners entails analyzing and developing district-related future scenarios and transformation paths, analyzing and supporting corporate commitment by the private sector, i.a. in the field of corporate citizenship, as well as analyzing and developing suitable forms of activating of specific stakeholder groups and financing schemes in order to maintain and improve the volume of green infrastructures in the city. Beyond, the economic perspective on green infrastructure will be taken into account by both determining the value of urban green for recreational purposes and by identifying barriers and potentials when building green environments. At the end of the project, parts of the acquired knowledge will be transported to the public by visualizations and an explanatory movie. Thereby, it is possible to facilitate the implementation of the developed integrative solutions.