Enhancing green infrastructure in cities: Urban car parks as an opportunity space

Interest in radical solutions to embedding Green Infrastructure (GI) into the built environment are at an all-time high. With land value often preventing more mundane forms of GI, key actors, such as planners, developers, architects and others, are increasingly exploring novel methods for embedding the features. This innovation involves a surge in green roofs, living walls and other systems which enables nature to thrive in otherwise hostile environments. Many of these systems are embedded on or within office complexes, universities and various ‘clean’ buildings within cities. However, there is a nascent movement to using urban car parks to enhance GI. In this opinion piece, we reflect on the opportunity space here and the potential to upscale work around embedding GI into urban car parks: exploring good practice, barriers to implementation and recommendations for moving the activity forward.