Green and blue infrastructure (GBI) contributes to the enhancement of quality of life and sustainable development in cities, providing recreational spaces and access to the water. This book investigates and integrates several disciplinary contributions to provide an analytical outline useful for urban planners, architects and engineers, non-profit and community associations, legislators and policy makers alike. Policies and regulations regarding environmental sustainability represent a key focus of the book, along with technical implementation aspects.

The first part of Urban Sustainability and River Restoration presents an overview of the main ecological and environmental problems affecting urban areas due to a combination of anthropic activities and climate change effects outlining the related mitigation and adaptation strategies based on GBI implementation and river restoration The second part analyses the techniques to integrate these mitigation and adaptation strategies in the urban context. The third part of the book defines top-dawn and bottom-up policies, developed in the United States and in Europe. Six river restoration case studies are considered, focusing on the different policies and governance strategies - at a federal, national, administrative and local scale - adopted to restore neglected places and trigger brownfield regeneration. --Book Jacket.