Green infrastructure: planning a national green network for Australia

This paper outlines research regarding the planning and design of a bold new continental-scale Green Infrastructure (GI) for Australia, the ‘National Green Network’ (NGN). The NGN is a design project that aims to augment Australia's current limited protected area network and meet international and national policy targets. Such a system would improve the long-term resilience of the Australian landscape and its biota through a proposed trans-continental network of vegetated corridors spanning the Australian continent. This would provide mobility for species within a framework of additional habitat and the ability to counteract ecological fragmentation and climate change. To create the NGN, an iterative design-based methodology was employed over three scales that document the shift from conceptual to specific, from policy to practice. At the local scale, detailed design resolution in conjunction with stakeholders through a charrette fine-tuned and adjusted the NGN, reinterpreting its potential to enable multi-functional outcomes. While conceived primarily for protection of biodiversity, a GI approach enabled consideration of both potential ecological and cultural benefits of such a scheme through holistic landscape planning. This leveraged the original ecological aims and augmented the NGN's feasibility.