Page 45 - IJES Special Issues for AIEC2016

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Understanding the Role of Green Infrastructure (GI) in
Tackling Climate Change in Today’s World

David Idiata*
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Surrey, UK

International Journal of Abstract. The physical environment is an important factor in influencing
Environment and present and prospective health. The physical environment encompasses
Sustainability [IJES] biodiversity and also the health of infrastructure. Understanding green
ISSN 1927-9566 infrastructure’s role in tackling climate change means understanding the
Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 35-45 dynamics of environment, climate change, and sustainability. This paper will
(2016) address green infrastructure, which incorporates both the natural environment
and engineered systems to provide clean water, conserve ecosystem values and
functions, and provide a wide array of benefits to people and wildlife. Green
infrastructure (GI) promotes multifunctional, connected, and green spaces and
has a key role to play in delivering climate change policy objectives, tackling
harmful emissions, and creating sustainable places. Science reveals that among
GHGs, CO2 has the highest impact on the climate. Hence, reducing CO2 in the
environment is key in mitigating climate change. In summary, vegetation (cover)
might be able to play a key role in taking out more carbon dioxide than is
currently modelled. The United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC)
identifies two ways of tackling climate change: mitigation and adaptation.
Mitigation deals with combating the causes of climate change, and one very cost
effective way to do this is to grow vegetation (GI).

Keywords. green infrastructure (GI); climate change; environment; sustainability;

*Correspondence: photosynthesis; emission; CO2

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Introduction According to Skwirk online Education, the
Earth's biodiversity helps preserve the balance
The context of people’s lives determines their of nature on our planet. Man-made threats such
health, so blaming individuals for having poor as deforestation, pollution, and human settle-
health or crediting them for good health is ment have led to many species becoming extinct
inappropriate. Individuals are unlikely to be all over the world. Many human activities can
able to directly control many of the deter- destroy a single species and thus break natural
minants of health, a key factor of which is their food chains, reducing the overall biodiversity of
environment (WHO, 2015). Many aspects of the an ecosystem.
physical and social environment can affect
people’s health, and increasing attention has Environmental studies and research has shown
focused on the implications for health behave- that climate change will negatively impact infra-
iours and social interactions that are created by structure too. Infrastructure corrodes, degra-
the built environment (NCBI, 2013). According des, degenerates, or deteriorates when exposed
to Public Health England, the physical to a corrosive environment. According to Ah-
environment is an important determinant of mad (2006), corrosion is a natural process, an
health influencing the prospects of health in aspect of decay of materials, and a deterioration
many ways. of materials as a result of reaction with its
environment. The issue of environment goes
Humans have extensively altered the global beyond just its effect on human health, affecting
environment (Vitousek, Mooney, Lubchenco &
Melillo, 1997 and Kattenberg et al., 1995).