Ecological Engineering and Green Infrastructure in Mitigating Emerging Urban Environmental Threats

This chapter examines the role of green infrastructure (GI) and ecological engineering (EE) in mitigating emerging urban environmental threats related to air, water, and soil pollution. The chapter delivers a best-evidence literature review on implementing solutions for mitigating three of the most important environmental threats: urban landfill sites, abandoned contaminated industrial sites, and traffic-related pollution. The chapter points out the benefits of GI development to counter adverse effects on the urban environment and the necessity of efficient spatial planning. Implemented solutions are compared and discussed from two different and complementary perspectives – the EE solution and the policy approach. The chapter points out two main ideas: (i) there are clear and significant benefits of GI development in countering adverse effects on the urban environment with best practices provided around the world; and (ii) there are huge economic costs in implementing such projects, and therefore, concerns regarding economic feasibility may arise; however, holistic assessments of such projects show that benefits are far more significant when ecosystem services (ES), air quality, and the value of time and recreation are considered as benefits and allocated a monetary value.