State of Green Infrastructure report set for launch

"Our shared goal of developing an equitable, efficient and sustainable city-region is greatly advanced by the conceptual and analytical benchmark set by this State of Green Infrastructure in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR). The report certainly helps meet our need in government for high quality and policy-relevant data and analysis, and we trust that it will prove to be a resource equally useful and stimulating to business, civil society, communities and the ordinary citizens who ultimately benefit from the services provided by green infrastructure," reads the foreword by Rashid Seedat, head, Gauteng Planning Commission, Office of the Premier, Gauteng provincial government.

The GCR landscape

Green assets are vital, but undervalued, infrastructure in the GCR. Governments around the world are adopting green infrastructure plans to take green assets more seriously, raising the question of whether similar planning is needed here.

The State of Green Infrastructure in the Gauteng City-Region is an overview of the natural and constructed green landscapes in the GCR. It assesses how these landscapes provide key services to society in the same way as 'hard' or 'grey' infrastructure.

The report includes spatial representations of the GCR's green networks, a review of ecosystem service valuation, and analyses of how both government and citizen invest in green infrastructure. This is coupled with powerful photographs of a GCR landscape that is both natural and unnatural at the same time.

For more information, email az.ca.orcg@ehesam.ymmas.