Opportunities provided by green infrastructure for integration of the city to nature

Unplanned urbanization, consumption of natural resources and unconscious human activities all over the world harm the ecosystem. Sustainability of cities is of interest to all countries of the world today. The concept of sustainability is frequently seen in the urban planning systems of developed countries. Green infrastructure systems are one of the structural solutions adopted in order to make rapidly growing cities more sustainable and to provide sustainable cities that can adapt to climate change. Green infrastructure systems; By producing natural solutions to environmental problems, it facilitates people's access to nature with a healthier and more livable environment, thus increasing both the quality of life and protecting the habitats of fauna and flora. Green infrastructure systems, which make a great contribution to urban sustainability, provide ecological, social and long-term economic benefits with the solutions they offer to the city. Today, it is possible to come across cities where green infrastructure systems are integrated. In this study, the integration of green infrastructure systems with urban sustainability and nature is discussed. Along with the emergence and historical development of the concept of green infrastructure, how it was evaluated in the countries of the world and application examples were investigated by literature review. Green infrastructure systems, which are produced as a solution to the problems brought by urbanization, are explained through examples and positive and negative results are tried to be stated. The aim of the study is to discuss the economic, ecological and social contributions of green infrastructure systems with six city examples selected from various continents of the world. Portland city of the United States of America selected from the North American continent, Stockholm city of Sweden from the European continent, Antalya city of Turkey selected from the Asian continent and Singapore City State and finally KwaDukuza city from the South African continent. The green infrastructure systems implemented by the cities have been evaluated and it has been tried to convey how the similarities and differences between them are integrated in line with economic, ecological and social factors.