Importance and development of green-blue infrastructure in cities and municipalities of the Upper Silesian-D Zagłębie Metropolis in the face of climate change
Currently, some 3.6 billion people live in cities around the world. According to UN calculations, there will be a further increase of almost 1.4 billion people living in urban areas by 2030. The intensive development of urban spaces should force changes in planning and management to meet the challenges of civilization. However, is this happening? Urban spaces in the world occupy only about 3% of the Earth’s area, while consuming 60-80% of energy and producing about 75% of CO2 emissions. Aggressive urbanization is reducing the area of green-blue resources in cities, leading to threats of flooding from heavy rainfall, as well as drought due to the high degree of pavement sealing. Currently, it would be appropriate to set a new direction for urban space management, which will place greater emphasis on designating new areas for tree planting and water retention in order to develop green-blue infrastructure. The above challenges are global, and action should be taken in all highly urbanized areas around the world, as well as in Poland. The Silesian province is the province with the highest degree of urbanization and population density in the country, and care for green-blue natural resources is often lost to urban solutions that overuse “concrete” in the city space. Is there a chance for change?
The speech is carried out within the framework of the project “Awareness of the importance and development of green-blue infrastructure in cities in the GZM area in the light of own research”, which has been subsidized by the Upper Silesian-Zagłębo Metropolis within the framework of the Program “Metropolitan Fund for the Support of Science” in 2022-2024”.
Dr. of economic sciences in the field of management sciences, Adjunct professor at the WSB Academy in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Deputy Mayor of Czechowice-Dziedzice, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Przedsiębiorstwo Wodociągów i Kanalizacji Sp. z o.o. in Czechowice-Dziedzice, Certified Lead Auditor of the Information Security Management System, Member of the Regional Energy Council at the Silesian Union of Municipalities and Districts.