RESUMEN

This study uses a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) process to know the present status of research on urban Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) in the lower-middle-income countries of the South Asian region, specifically India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan, which produced 77 relevant publications after detailed scanning published between 2013 and 2022. It was aimed to analyze variations on BGI's mentions in different regions, identify BGI components found in the literature and their uses to promote urban sustainability, research initiatives, and priorities, and identify knowledge gaps for future research. The review reveals significant differences in research distribution among countries, with the majority of the articles focusing on green spaces compared to bluescapes and concentrating on topics like local inhabitant's perception of urban green spaces, advantages of implementing nature-based solutions, the role of green infrastructures in minimizing the urban heat island effect, air pollution, etc. Articles highlighted the lack of governance and the challenges in implementing and designing a BGI network. However, articles discussing a holistic methodology to implement BGI for promoting urban sustainability were limited. Gaps still exist in determining the appropriate strategy for the scope identification, creation, management, and governance of BGI and integrating it with existing grey infrastructure.

Asunto(s)

Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Conservación de los Recursos Naturales/métodos , Ciudades , Asia

RESUMEN

Smart urban planning needs to have a multicriteria-based approach to prevent the deteriorating local thermal climate. Maximizing the cooling potential using the available grey infrastructure would be the utmost priority of future smart cities. Remote sensing and GIS can be the appropriate tools to develop a climate-resilient urban planning framework. Studies are needed to include different features of vertical and horizontal landscaping to mitigate heat stress and enhance liveability at the city level. With this goal, the current work outlined a holistic approach to efficiently using green spaces with minimal reconstruction. The problem of regional climate threat was evaluated with urban heat island characterization. Moran's I clustering identified nearly 12% of the study area to be under considerable heat stress during summer days. Multiple techniques, such as mapping local climate zones, segment mean shift-based roof extraction, vegetation index computation, solar azimuth-based green wall site selection, etc., were applied to formulate solutions and provide an integrated method for city-level environment enhancement. A considerable area was identified as most suitable for green roof cover, and it was also computed that the transition towards green roof at only these locations may bring down the maximum heat island intensity by 0.74 °C. Additionally, solar zenith, illumination effect, and building height information were combined to create a distinct method where vertical plantation would flourish exceptionally. A rigorous assessment of more than 130 urban green spaces further quantified the relation between landscape geometry and cooling effect to provide optimum green space designs for future urban planning.