Author(s)

Jon Laurenz, Jone Belausteguigoitia & Daniel Roehr

Abstract

The 2030 Agenda shows the path to achieve the sustainable development goals. in addition, the Inter national Paris Agreement, the IPCC reports on climate change and the recent COP26 in Glasgow urge the international community to decarbonize their economies and move towards carbon neutral countries by 2050. As urban designers, willing to meet these international commitments through our profession, Green Urban Infrastructure Solutions (GUIS) evidence cost-efficient policy tools to respond to climate change. This paper includes the implementation of gUis in two pilot projects in the Basque country. In addition, the environmental benefits derived from such green intervention are analyzed, in terms of climate change adaptation, including the amelioration of stormwater runoff, reduction of urban hot spots and improvement of urban air quality. The paper also highlights the barriers and difficulties encountered when implementing these GUIS into practice. This includes the skepticism about innovative urban solutions and the lack of experience in GUIS. Therefore, the paper proposes an urban participation, research and regulation method in order to overcome current barriers and enhance a broad implementation of GUIS to comply with international commitments.

Keywords

climate change adaptation urban solutions, environmental benefits, green streets, green urban infrastructure, low impact development, nature based urban solutions, stormwater management, sustainable urban drainage system, urban participation and regulation method, water sensitive urban solutions.