Urban Green Network - Synthesis of Environmental, Social and Economic Linkages in Urban Landscape

The city sprawl phenomenon, responsible for incorporating new suburbs into cities, is constantly changing our landscape. The results of this phenomenon are the rapid decrease of forest cover, fragmentation of green areas and loss of biodiversity. The paper examines studies and contemporary Green Infrastructure practices in response to find a solution for an increasing demand for new residential and recreational green areas in urban environment. The subject of the analysis is related to the problems of, both, nature protection and well-balanced development of the built-up areas. This paper was motivated by the three pillars of sustainability – environmental, economic, and social to take an interdisciplinary approach to GI in the context of system of GI linkages. It is focused on the role of green linkages in the integrity of GI network, and their influence on ecological, cultural and landscape functions, in extremely transformed and polluted urban environment. The research makes an attempt to define the role of landscape linkages in the Green Infrastructure. (paper)