Challenges, opportunities and prospects for linking green infrastructure and the conservation of urban built heritage

Green infrastructure and other nature-based solutions (NbS) offer opportunities to incorporate green elements into cultural heritage conservation and management practice in cities and unlock their associated co-benefits. There are concerns, however, about the potential negative impacts of nature on built heritage including biodeterioration, the loss of heritage values, and practical challenges for heritage conservation and management. These issues can act as barriers to the wider uptake of GI, especially in historic cities. Here, we illustrate how built heritage can benefit from GI interventions by reducing or mitigating the deterioration of heritage materials, improving the visitor experience, enhancing values, and stimulating investment. At the same time, built heritage conservation can support the delivery, connectedness, and success of GI schemes by offering additional locations for implementation, providing inspiration for closer relationships between nature and society, and enriching the benefits of GI by adding a cultural element. Better integration of built heritage into the wider GI paradigm shows great promise for strengthening and broadening these linkages in cities.