Urban green infrastructure and reuse of spaces and buildings: views from Croatia

Croatian towns and cities face similar challenges to other European towns and cities. Some of the most common and contemporary urban issues are certainly monocentric territorial development, urban sprawl and unsustainable urbanisation, depopulation and migration, and challenges induced by climate change. Each of these challenges needs to be approached separately, but they also need to be considered jointly, as they are intertwined and co-dependent.

The Croatian territory is developing in a polycentric manner around four urban centres: Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and Osijek. However, the polycentric development model is not fully effective. Zagreb, as the capital, the administrative and cultural centre of Croatia, diminishes the importance and role of Croatia’s other large, medium-sized and small cities. This causes intra-state migration, the depopulation of other Croatian cities and rural areas, and ultimately results in uneven territorial and urban development. Population growth in some and population loss in other regions result in the use of ‘instant’ urban and spatial solutions that almost always have negative and long-term consequences.

"The European Green Deal is not onlya growth strategy but also the foundation of the EU’s recovery strategy"

One of the key elements, common to all spatial development challenges, is the principle of sustainable land use, since all challenges are, in one way or another, related to land use, its management and planning. While continuously growing cities and their functional areas are confronted with environmental pressures, some smaller towns need to cope with shrinkage and economic decline. At the same time, there is a growing need for predominantly public spaces and facilities. There are spatial resources in cities that have the potential to meet this need, without unnecessarily occupying undeveloped natural areas and consuming scarce spatial resources.

To address these issues, the Croatian Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning has introduced two new priority topics to its work: the development of green infrastructure (GI) in urban areas and a circular economy for buildings and spaces. There are numerous benefits of GI implementation in urban areas, such as temperature regulation, the reduction of heat island effects, the improvement of air, water and soil quality, the provision of recreational areas, improvements in health and the quality of life, and the strengthening of cities’ resilience to climate change and the reducing of the adverse impacts of cities on the climate. Likewise, reusing spaces and buildings is an effective way of reducing urban sprawl and its environmental impacts, and keeping neighbourhoods inhabited and vital.

Vacant buildings and brownfields can be adapted to new uses or transformed into public spaces, thereby contributing to regenerative spatial and urban planning. All of this should be done while applying the overall principles of the circular economy.

Croatia has recognised the inseparable link between the topics of GI and the reuse of buildings and spaces, and their contribution to the wider theme of the development of the circular economy.

To enable, induce and encourage the development and implementation of projects, the ministry initiated the development of two strategic documents, which set the legislative and implementational foundation for these two topics. Two programmes, i.e. one on GI in urban areas and one on the reuse of buildings and spaces, were developed for the period up to 2030. The complementarity and interconnectedness of the two programmes are clearly emphasised. The objectives of the programme on the development of green infrastructure are to improve the planning and management of GI, build new and refurbish existing GI, and raise awareness and enhance knowledge of the benefits and opportunities of developing GI. On the other hand, the programme on circular management of spaces and buildings encourages the renovation of neglected, unused and inadequately used spaces and buildings, while introducing a management system and the use of sustainable solutions.

These two topics are completely in line with the new and ambitious growth strategy proposed by the European Commission – the European Green Deal. With regard to the current pandemic and the consequent global economic crisis, the European Green Deal is not only a growth strategy but also the foundation of the EU’s recovery strategy. The European Green Deal strives for the transformation of the European economy to a resource-efficient and competitive one, with the overall goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. It develops an ambitious direction for a green and sustainable Europe and underlines the crucial importance of intensifying action on increasing resilience.

By developing and implementing GI in urban areas and by reusing spaces and buildings while avoiding the exploitation of limited spatial resources, we will contribute to sustainable development, strengthen the resilience of our territories and urban areas, and improve health and the quality of life, as well as helping to achieve the common objectives of the European Green Deal.