Urban Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Development: A Review

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) can alleviate many of the problems that the growing urban population is facing. This study performed a literature review about UGI and sustainable development (SD) using the Web of Science (WoS) and the software VOSviewer. Of 195 papers selected, 89 are qualitative, focusing on theoretical approaches and design; equally, 89 are quantitative, dealing with metrics and spatial analysis and 17 combined both approaches. A high connectivity between "green infrastructure ", "ecosystem services ", "urban planning " and "sustainable development " was observed. Only 39 of the documents embrace environmental, social and economic aspects. Most of the papers are related to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11, "to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable " and SDG 15, "protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems ". Further research integrating the three pillars of sustainability and relating UGI to all the SDGs is recommended.