Ecology & Safety, Volume 9, 2015

Abstract: The changing climate has a significant negative impact on urban environments, influencing thereby the quality of life of urban residents and causing a range of problems in urban areas worldwide. There is a need for efficient urban planning and design tools, which can mitigate these negative effects. Green infrastructure represents a tool to create more resilient and sustainable urban environments by greening open spaces in our cities. Green structures and greenery elements improve the urban microclimate and reduce noise, dustiness, the heat island effect and help to manage urban stormwater. Therefore, it is crucial to protect and improve existing green spaces, enhance their connectedness and utilise unconventional areas for creating new green spaces which would improve the health of urban landscapes. Here, greening of roofs, walls, brownfields and other empty spaces comes into play. They still represent an unutilised potential of contemporary urban landscapes. Landscape Architecture as a field of research and design practice plays a crucial role in developing innovative tools, planning and designing green infrastructure which will contribute to creation of sustainable and multifunctional urban landscapes of the future.