Designing green and blue infrastructure to support healthy urban living

There is a growing awareness in cities throughout the world that green and blue infrastructure can offer a wide range of ecosystem services to support a healthy urban environment. However, the potential benefits of green and blue infrastructure are probably only partially utilized because of a lack of both scientific knowledge and practical understanding of what these benefits are, and how green and blue infrastructure can best be implemented. Hence there is a need for a translation of scientific knowledge on the functionality of green and blue infrastructure into design principles and how to integrate these principles into the design of multifunctional green and blue infrastructure. This report focuses on developing concepts and design principles for blue and green infrastructure that not only support climate resilience but also contribute to a healthy and liveable urban environment. A healthy and liveable urban environment contributes to the strengthening of the socio-economic climate in cities. The objective is to assess and show how the functional use of urban blue and green infrastructure contributes to a liveable and healthy city. The premise is that liveability can be improved with a variety of ecosystems services.