Urban Green Infrastructure as a Strategy to Address Urban Energy Efficiency and Sustainability. A Case Study of Milagrosa (Pamplona)

Green Infrastructure (GI) has gained importance in recent years as it has been revealed as an essential piece to face the environmental problem generated by the incessant growth of urbanization, loss of biodiversity, and climate change. In this vein, the results of a research aimed at investigating the challenges posed by the implementation of the GI in the usual compact urban spaces in the cities of the Mediterranean area are presented, based on the analysis of indicators on green spaces in the Spanish city of Pamplona. A comparative analysis of the indicators (green spaces and trees) in the city's neighbourhoods using GIS tools reveals the high intra-urban inequalities as well as the existence of, particularly, underfunded areas. The morphological analysis of one of the underfunded spaces (La Milagrosa neighbourhood) also shows that the narrowness of the road and the shortage of green spaces constitute obstacles that must be addressed from the planning tools of the GI. The results allow us to reflect on the importance of the scale of analysis in the planning processes of the UGI (Urban Green Infrastructure) and on neighbourhood the suitability of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as an alternative for the design and implementation of the UGI.

Automated summary

Green Infrastructure (GI) has become increasingly important in addressing the environmental challenges brought about by urbanization, loss of biodiversity, and climate change. This research focuses on the implementation of GI in compact urban spaces in Mediterranean cities, using the city of Pamplona in Spain as a case study. The analysis reveals intra-urban inequalities and underfunded areas, highlighting the obstacles that need to be addressed in the planning of GI. The study also emphasizes the importance of scale in the planning processes of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) and the suitability of Nature-based Solutions (NbS).