Green infrastructure planning for social equity : Utilizing resilience to facilitate implementation in the City of Vancouver, Canada

Abstract: Green infrastructure (GI) is increasingly being adopted in urban planning as its multifunctionality presents opportunities to address several environmental issues faced by cities. However, significant barriers remain to the widespread implementation of GI. In the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the dominance of engineering knowledge systems hinders GI from being brought to the forefront of infrastructural planning and decision-making processes. This dominance, and opportunistic implementation, also prevent GI from being equitably distributed across the city; thus, neglecting the needs of local equity-denied groups. To address the inequitable and engineering-dominated planning and decision-making processes around GI, this study aims to determine how GI and social equity can play a larger role in municipal operations. Through a literature review, document analysis, and key informant interviews, the relations between GI and equity are examined, as well as the extent to which the two are prioritized in planning and decision-making processes in the City of Vancouver. The concept of urban resilience is proposed as a way to bridge knowledge gaps, as its ability to act as both a boundary object and bridging concept can help to foster transdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge co- production. The findings highlight the need for practitioners to diversify their knowledge systems in order to successfully increase GI uptake and incorporate equity into practice. To enhance equitable GI practices within the City of Vancouver, staff are recommended to internalize and conceptualize equity in their personal and professional lives before attempting to operationalize it. This paper develops a set of equity criteria, which centre three dimensions of social equity: distributional, recognitional, and procedural equity, to help practitioners operationalize equity in GI project evaluations. A set of variables to aid in the identification of local equity-denied groups is also presented. As municipalities become increasingly aware of the disproportionate impacts felt by equity-denied groups, the hope is that this research will inform more equitable distributions of GI to address their needs.