Bottleneck-Constrained Prioritisation of Urban Green Infrastructure Policies in Madrid

Abstract

The importance of urban green infrastructure can be stated in terms of contributions to climate adaptation, biodiversity preservation, health benefits, community revitalisation, and environmental justice. Nevertheless, the potential contribution of urban green infrastructure to resilience may be overstated because strong ecological or innovation components can offset poor performance in terms of governance, autonomy, and social cohesion. In the case of the municipal programme for urban green infrastructure in Madrid between 2015 and 2019, one may distinguish 21 districts with more than three million inhabitants, a population density of 5512 inhabitants per km², 18.3 m² of green space per inhabitant, 1.4 trees per three inhabitants, 27 urban green infrastructure policies, 620 geolocated actions, 30 resilience indicators, six factor scores, and district vulnerability values. From a set of six factor scores, one can discern the following picture of the profile of this municipality: learning and innovation and social-ecological justice have reached 0.98 on the 0–2 scale; diversity – 0.95; social cohesion – 0.81; self-sufficiency and autonomy – 0.76; and polycentric governance – 0.69. The highest mean score (6.97) among all sets of three policies belongs to HI_plan, MD_info, and MI_plan. Together with GIB_plan and GS_plan, this constitutes a five-policy strategic core with a mean score of 6.74 and a better municipal balance due to the link between neighbourhood participation and planning continuity. District action scores correlate rather strongly (r = 0.569) and positively with the proportion of low-education or no-education residents, i.e., a partial pro-vulnerability orientation exists.