Integrative Green Infrastructure Planning

The GRIP project provides new knowledge on green infrastructure in South Africa through an interdisciplinary research project that seeks to strengthen the integrated planning approaches in the national capital of South Africa, City of Tshwane (CoT). GRIP will facilitate lessons from City of Aarhus (CoA), in particular their holistic planning integrating social, economic, and cultural issues with urban issues such as non-motorized transportation, densification, water infrastructure and liveable public spaces. Through the GRIP project, a city-to-city collaboration was combined with research that cross-fertilizes spatial ecology, environmental justice and landscape design, building capacities across disciplines, borders, and sectors. Knowledge was be co-created through reciprocal exchange of management experiences (e.g. organization and communication) and stronger technical capacities (high-resolution mapping and big data modelling of multifunctionality), and through integration of ecological knowledge (on species and habitats) and social gains (local identity, equity, justice and economic development, in particular).