Identifying green infrastructure strategies for planning the urban landscapes: The case of Amman, Jordan

Cities and urban areas have become the primary locations that attract people and dominate large parts of the earth's landmass. Over the past few years, urban populations have doubled, and cities have expanded dramatically at the expense of agricultural and rural areas until urban populations have reached 56% of the world's population. Nowadays, the adverse effects of expansion and pressure on ecosystem services in cities have begun to appear significantly, such as habitat destruction, lack of agricultural land, climate change, droughts, floods or heat waves, so it was necessary to find logical urban solutions that help cities to rehabilitate their resources and provide services to their residents efficiently; hence the concept of green infrastructure emerged. Green infrastructure is a strategic plan for natural or semi-natural areas that supports ecosystem services at all scales and includes green and blue spaces. This plan has several benefits for urban cities, such as mitigating the effects of climate change, conserving water resources, increasing green spaces, providing recreational places and protecting habitats. It also has social and health benefits such as providing healthy, physically and mentally safe spaces and assisting residents to receive urban services more efficiently. This thesis adopts the concept, definition, and application of green infrastructure in Amman, one of the ,Middle East's most important, well-known cities. Amman was chosen because of its historical and cultural importance; also, it is Jordan's political and financial capital. This study aims to increase public green spaces in Amman by applying green infrastructure strategies to solve the city's issues, such as urbanization, water shortage, desertification, and climate change. The study relied on two main methodologies: producing and analyzing GIS maps to analyze the reality of the city and find a projection of the future plan, and the second is a questionnaire for experts perceptions and decision-makers to assess the city's issues and find a plan from the point of view of experts and academics. The results of this thesis, through a combination of map analysis and questionnaire analysis, showed that some green infrastructure strategies are applicable to improve the local environment of the city and use water harvesting techniques in line with the city's topography, precipitation, and annual temperatures. It was also proposed that the existing road network be utilized and rehabilitated as a green network to connect existing and proposed green spaces. The result was an increase in green spaces from 2% to 4% of the city's green area and an increase in per capita green space from 3.466 meters to 5.0 meters of green space. The city's issues were also summarized according to the results of the questionnaire, such as water shortage, land use changes, lack of green space, desertification, heat waves, and tourism development. The future comprehensive plan was evaluated according to expert opinions and map analysis to confirm the city's determinants and green infrastructure elements.