THE PRESENCE OF BLUE INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE INTERACTION BETWEEN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING

Abstract

The notion of Green Infrastructure (GI) is linked to topics such as sustainability, social justice, governance, and climate resilience, among others. This concept includes Blue Infrastructure (BI), which is associated with water management as well as Low Impact Development (LID), Water Sensitive Urban Design Systems (WSUDs) and Best Management Practices (BMP). However, the relationship between GI and BI in urban and regional planning may not be obvious, even when examining important databases in the academic field, limiting its application. This paper tries to illustrate, using three samples of 77 publications, that BI is frequently overlooked in academic production connected to the implementation of GI in urban and regional planning (URP). Its aim is to expose the various perspectives, or variations, on BI in GI and URP research. Articles on the integration of GI in URP were collected from the Web of Science and Scopus and grouped based on analyses performed using database filters, and analyzed with Bibliometric, and VOSviewer. The results show that there is a significant difference in the presence of BI between the three groups, implying different approaches to urban hydrology within GI and its integration into urban and regional planning, and also a disconnect between authors and their areas when observing thematic maps that represent the development of this field in scientific research.