Planning for multifunctional urban green infrastructures: Promises and challenges

The principle of multifunctionality has been observed as one of the key attractions of the emerging concept of green infrastructure, being recognized as a means of achievement of several environmental, social, cultural and economic urban policy aims. Concomitant with this growing popularity, there are increasing concerns and criticisms about its applicability. One of the major criticisms is that there is often a misinterpretation of green infrastructure as a straightforward way to promote multifunctionality without the need to make choices among functions. In this article, we develop a method that informs spatial priority areas towards green infrastructure planning by taking into account the assessment of different functions. Two indicators of green infrastructure functions were selected: local temperature regulation by green areas and population proximity to public green spaces. The results suggest the existence of spatial synergies and conflicts between those spatial priorities and confirm that spatial policies for Porto green infrastructure would be reasonably different depending on the favoured green infrastructure function. Two main conclusions are drawn from the results: planning for multifunctional green infrastructure calls for a shift from general consensuses to designed policies and from generic assumptions to local assessments.