Freely accessible and well-maintained open green spaces are hallmarks of many places in Australia. Together with waterways, beaches and other blue spaces, they help to define this country's cities and towns.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed Australians' relationship with nature and the outdoors and provided the opportunity to reconnect people to these areas.
Green and blue infrastructure is used to describe natural areas and features (land, vegetation and waterways) that deliver a broad range of the ecosystem services (such as air quality) that underpin a healthy environment.
Along with the physical facilities that support them (such as walking and cycling tracks, Jetties and wharves), green and blue infrastructure make a significant contribution to people's physical and mental wellbeing and to the economic productivity of communities. Green space is particularly important in higher-density and socio-economically disadvantaged areas.54
As well as size and attractiveness, good accessibility greatly increases the use of these public spaces.55 However, fragmented planning and a lack of prioritised investment mean access can be inequitably distributed.56
Without coordination in the planning and control of blue and green spaces, viable opportunities to improve accessibility, such as integration with land-use planning and public and active transport networks, may be missed.57
Governments at all levels must work together to embed an approach to developing green and blue infrastructure that is grounded in the varied needs of the local community.
They have a role to play in:
• providing new, good-quality green and blue space that is inclusive, equitable and improves liveability
• improving, maintaining and protecting existing green and blue infrastructure
• increasing green and blue infrastructure within public spaces and promoting healthy streets
• improving transport links, pathways and other means of access to green and blue space.
This work should include benchmarks for improving accessibility and quality, which will create more liveable local areas. They should be built around understanding what people value most about being able to access nature and green space, and how these spaces could be improved to meet the current and future health and wellbeing needs of the population.
To support strategic decision-making, there should also be a consistent methodology for capturing data across jurisdictions, categorising types of infrastructure and quantifying the social, economic and environmental benefits of green and blue infrastructure.
This topic is covered further in the Sustainability and resilience, Transport and Water chapters.