Green infrastructure planning principles for improved decision-making at the site development design stage at the City of Tshwane

Abstract

Globally, researchers advocate the potential of green infrastructure applications to contribute to inclusive, safe and sustainable cities as captured by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 11. Socio-economic urgencies and political agendas often overshadow green infrastructure opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa. The development and incorporation of implementable, context-based green infrastructure planning principles in spatial planning policies and frameworks are scant in many Sub-Saharan African cities, and so is research on green infrastructure. This study considers the challenges and opportunities that city officials face with green infrastructure planning when enforcing minimum public open space requirements in the City of Tshwane, South Africa.

A literature review that focused mainly on green infrastructure guidelines in Sub-Saharan Africa was conducted. The researcher considered the alignment of the green infrastructure guidelines identified in the literature with a policy document review of spatial and environmental development principles in South African national, provincial and local spatial policy documents. In parallel with the literature and policy review process, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 interviewees involved in green infrastructure planning at the City of Tshwane. The researcher followed a co-development process that commenced with the interviews and continued through a participatory workshop with 23 participants, including a pre-workshop online survey and five post-workshop feedback and clarification discussions. Participants included city officials, property developers, and built-environment practitioners, all with many years of experience in the city's land development application process.

The findings illustrate that city officials face many complex challenges with the application of green infrastructure, such as poor intergovernmental collaboration; conflicting policies, regulations and frameworks; scarce resources; urbanisation resulting in land invasions due to a housing shortage; and a lack of appreciation of the value and benefits that green infrastructure can provide. The findings further illustrate that local spatial policies have many national, provincial and city planning principles but are not carried through to the site development planning stage. Many opportunities were identified for improved green infrastructure planning, such as streamlining the land development application process, incentivising developers, enabling cross-sectoral partnerships to open up new resource pools to fund green infrastructure applications, and promoting the long-term benefits of green infrastructure. Based on the findings, 20 planning principles are proposed for the city's site development planning phase that overlap with 18 principles in the literature but emphasise aspects of access, safety, quality and cross-sectoral partnerships to co-develop and co-manage green space. These are unique requirements in a Sub-Saharan African context that can assist with the increased sustainability, protection and local benefits that green infrastructure offers and represents in the city. The study demonstrates the value of local cross-sectoral input in green infrastructure planning by following co-design, co-development, co-management, and co-ownership approaches that enable residents to benefit from civic resources and contribute to environmental justice whilst ascertaining the contextual application of research outcomes.