New EPA funded Eco-Plan Reports published

Environmental Protection Agency launches Green Infrastructure report and guidelines

The EPA has launched 2 publications from the APEP Eco-Plan team (Prof Mark Scott, Dr Mick Lennon, Dr Karen Foley and Dr Marcus Collier) following an 18 month research project investigating the potential for integrating an ecosystem approach into spatial planning. This project is the precurser to Eco-Health. The first publication is the full technical report, ‘Integrating Ecosystem Approaches, Green Infrastructure and Spatial Planning’, which examines the ecosystem services concept and how it relates to spatial planning through green infrastructure planning and enhancing, restoring, and creating ecological assets to address climate change adaptation, flood risk management and to maximize biodiversity gains through the planning system. The second publication, Green Infrastructure: A ‘How To’ Guide for Disseminating and Integrating the Concept into Spatial Planning Practice, provides guidelines for local authorities for applying a novel, interactive planning methodology to enhance green infrastructure provision within local spatial plans. The reports can be downloaded here.