Integrating blue–green infrastructure into urban spatial planning : comparative insights from Ljubljana, Kraków, and Chinese cities

Yang, Shengnan (author), Radinja, Matej (author), Atanasova, Nataša (author), Zavodnik Lamovšek, Alma (author)

Amid rapid urbanisation and the associated environmental challenges, such as increased flood risk, the urban heat island effect, and ecosystem degradation, Blue–Green Infrastructure (BGI) has emerged as a vital sustainable development strategy. Some countries have successfully implemented BGI projects, shaped by their unique geographical conditions, socioeconomic contexts, and governance structures. Although the BGI concept is highly relevant worldwide, strategies for integrating BGI into urban environments vary significantly across regions and countries due to their distinct urban structures and spatial planning systems. This study provides a comparative study of BGI implementation into spatial planning systems of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Kraków (Poland), as Central European cities, and Shanghai and Guangzhou, as Chinese cities. Through a systematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, the study evaluates how different enablers, i.e., (1) guidelines, strategies, and actions, (2) land-use strategy for BGI, and (3) potential of factors for BGI implementation, including planning scale, financial, technical, and spatial, facilitate BGI implementation. This comparative study reveals contrasting yet complementary BGI paradigms, most notably related to top-down versus bottom-up implementation and different prioritisation of BGI functions. These varying paradigms are shaped by specific urban challenges, governance, and spatial planning systems.

• Language: English
• Keywords: blue–green infrastructure, urban spatial planning, sponge city programme, stormwater management, interview, comparative analysis
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FGG - Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 19 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 18, issue 11, [article no.] 1271
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182916
• UDC: 711.4
• ISSN on article: 2073-4441
• DOI: 10.3390/w18111271
• COBISS.SI-ID: 279619331
• Publication date in RUL: 28.05.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Water
• Shortened title: Water
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2073-4441
• COBISS.SI-ID: 36731653

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: modro-zelena infrastruktura, urbanistično načrtovanje, program spužvastih mest, upravljanje padavinskih voda, intevju, primerjalna analiza

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0180-2022
• Name: Vodarstvo in geotehnika: orodja in metode za analize in simulacije procesov ter razvoj tehnologij

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0227-2018
• Name: Geoinformacijska infrastruktura in trajnostni prostorski razvoj Slovenije