Co-producing a new Blue-and-Green Infrastructure Strategy for Colchester Borough: Key Findings from the River Colne Pilot

This report examines the first stage in the design of a new Blue and Green Infrastructure (BGI) Strategy for Colchester city. Closely connected to ‘green infrastructure’, BGI refers to an integrated approach to managing, improving and/or reintroducing natural and semi-natural green (vegetation) and blue (waterways) spaces. Whilst we are used to thinking about ‘grey’ infrastructure, BGI moves our focus to nature-based features situated in built-up areas. Types of blue-green infrastructure include green roofs and walls, parks, cemeteries, private gardens, allotments, verges, greenways, forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers, lakes, and ponds. Blue-green infrastructure is important for climate change mitigation and adaptation, promoting biodiversity, human health and wellbeing, and developing prosperous communities (Brown and Mijic, 2019; Natural England, 2022a).