Course overview

My objective with this 5-week course is to give you the fundamental and practical knowledge to be able to implement Green Infrastructure design and management in your own area.

Concretely, these are your learning objectives (LO), numbered 1 to 7:

LO1: Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of Green Infrastructure (GI) and Ecosystem Services (ESS)

LO2: Explore how GI and ESS relate to and matter for your area of work/study and identify GI and ESS present in your area

LO3: Reflect on the wider environmental policy context (climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental injustice, …) around GI

LO4: Identify what practical tools and resources are available online for GI / ESS management

LO5: Investigate how to identify and maximise benefits generated by GI/ESS and understand how to apply that knowledge to your area

LO6: Explore where GI governance issues come from and how to overcome them by generating engagement and communicating on GI / ESS benefits

LO7: Collaborate with stakeholders to unlock investments and resources for GI and GI network management

During the rest of this first week, we will take a look at why GI matters and what the essence of GI management is.

Then, at the basis of the concept of Green Infrastructure are important ecological notions you must understand. This is how we will start Week 2. Building on that, we will assess what makes a ‘good’ GI network and what are some of the most important considerations for GI.

In Week 3, we will take a step back and look at the wider policy context. This is meant to help you understand how GI can contribute to several strategic policy objectives, with a focus on European Union (EU) policy. For learners outside the EU, I trust this can still be informative and help you make some parallels with your own national policy.

In Weeks 4 and 5, we will dive into the practical implementation of GI design and management. During Week 4, we will talk about governance, stakeholder engagement and participation. During Week 5, we will focus on the economic aspects of GI, and finally open up with some suggestions on how to pass on what you will have learned over these 5 weeks together, for more effective multi-stakeholder management of GI.

Throughout the course, I will bring on experts from various partner organisations and will present examples from the field to illustrate the concepts and key elements relating to GI.

For each activity, I will also provide links to further resources and tools so you can delve deeper into what interests you, and also find elements to support local implementation (in the form of toolkits, data, methods, etc.).