Green infrastructure and ecosystem services

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Green Infrastructures (GI) are considered a benefit, inter alia, for territorial development because they provide multiple functions on the same spatial area. The underlying principle of GI is that the same area of land can offer many environmental, social, cultural and economic benefits at the same time, provided its ecosystems are in a healthy condition. However, valuable European ecosystems are being degraded by land fragmentation, urban expansion and the building of transport and energy infrastructures. This affects habitats and species and reduces the spatial and functional coherence of the landscape. Degraded ecosystems have lower species richness and are unable to offer the same services as healthy ecosystems. Ecosystem services cover the benefits that can be derived from ecosystems, including among others the provision by nature of food, materials, clean water, clean air, climate regulation, flood prevention, pollination and recreation.

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