The Green Infrastructure Plan in the Harlow Area is an independent study by Chris Blandford Associates, working under the close supervision of a Steering Group consisting of representatives from national, regional and local organisations.
The Green Infrastructure Plan provides guidance on how the green areas should be protected, enhanced and where appropriate extended. Green spaces can include areas such as parks, gardens, woods and nature reserves with or without public access; linkages include linear features such as off-road paths, highways, rivers, streams or hedgerows, which can provide corridors for wildlife and connect people to open spaces.
The concept of green infrastructure planning is based on a strategic approach to ensuring that environmental assets of natural and cultural value are integrated with land development, growth management and built infrastructure planning at the earliest stage. This approach enables land management to be more proactive, less reactive, and better integrated with efforts to manage growth and development at all spatial planning levels. Green infrastructure planning is therefore a key mechanism for delivering sustainable communities and quality of life benefits within growth areas.
The Harlow, Epping Forest, the River Stort and the Lea Valley Green Spaces Project (the Harlow Green Spaces Project), which is part-funded by the DCLG, aims to enhance the intrinsic character and nature of green spaces within the Harlow Area, acquire new green spaces for public access and to create links between these green spaces.
The Harlow Green Spaces Project partners commissioned Chris Blandford Associates to prepare a Green Infrastructure Plan for the Harlow Area to provide a strategic framework and guidelines for the implementation of a connected and multi-functional green infrastructure network of wildlife sites, public open spaces and green links within the countryside in and around Harlow. The GIP comprises of the following two documents which where then broken down into smaller parts for faster accessability.
For more information on the Harlow Area Green Infrastructure Plan, see Related Links at bottom right of page.
The Community of Practice is a virtual hub of knowledge and ideas – shared among peers – to promote the application of green infrastructure concepts and principles to the nation’s conservation priorities. Learn more »
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