Understanding and assessing climate risk to green infrastructure: experiences from Greater Manchester (UK)

The existing body of research into the environmental and socio-economic benefits of green infra-structure supports the case for it to be positioned as a form of critical infrastructure, particularly in urban settings. It is broadly recognized that extreme weather and climate change pose signifi-cant risks to critical infrastructure systems linked to the provision of services including electrici-ty, water, communications, and transport, and consequently risk assessments and associated adaptation strategies are common practice. However, although green infrastructure is also at risk from extreme weather and climate change, threatening the realization of benefits that it can de-liver in urban settings, associated risks to green infrastructure are not widely understood or as-sessed in practice. This paper discusses the status of existing research on this topic and uses this as a foundation for a Greater Manchester (UK) case study that assesses the risk of low water avail-ability to grassed areas, which represent a key element of the city-region’s green infrastructure. In doing so, the paper demonstrates how risks linked to extreme weather and climate change can be assessed spatially to inform green infrastructure planning. In summary, this paper aims to raise awareness of extreme weather and climate change risk to urban green infrastructure, present an empirical case study and associated methodological approach on this topic, and ultimately to support efforts to enhance the resilience of urban green infrastructure to extreme weather and cli-mate change.