An Ecological Framework for Greening Cities
An ecologically planned greening strategy in an urban landscape helps provide a healthy and wholesome environment for its citizens and, at the same time, promotes biodiversity, offers ecosystem services, raises awareness about environmental conservation, protects the city’s environment (from pollution), and ameliorates climate locally. Designing a greening strategy compatible to local physico-climatic conditions requires consideration and integration of a number of complex factors. The current paper aims to develop a comprehensive framework for a greening strategy based on the principals of ecology. This paper also focuses on deriving benefits from the green cover in the landscape through maximizing the flow of ecosystem services. The outcome of such an ecologically designed greening strategy will be in the form of a customized green plan right from a neighbourhood scale to a community and finally a city scale.
