Green and blue infrastructure: An opportunity for smart cities?

The objective of this paper is to examine possible application of green and blue infrastructure as part of the Smart Cities concept. The Smart Cities initiative puts an emphasis on improvement of life in cities in various areas. Climate change has a significant impact on city populations. Potential adaptive measures include ecosystem-based measures using green and blue infrastructure as an alternative to grey infrastructure. In addition to environmental benefits and ecosystem services, they provide a number of other economic and social benefits. Services provided and benefits are assessed in the paper on an example of the construction of a green roof in Prague-Jinonice using cost-benefit analysis. Green roofs can be classified as a component of smart buildings in the Smart Cities concept. The results of the quantification of costs (at an annualised rate of CZK 7852) and benefits (at an annualised rate of CZK 8973) indicate that the benefits exceed the costs and the measure can thus be regarded as socially beneficial. Based on the cost-benefit analysis, it can be regarded as economically effective and implementable by the property owner without a subsidy motivation requirement.