Abstract
How does society take care of forest, rural and urban landscapes so that biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human health benefits are delivered? New guidelines use the term *green infrastructure* to conceptualize this. To secure functional green infrastructures ecological and social systems must be included in governance and management. This proposal focuses on diagnosis and treatment of green infrastructures towards functionality in forest, rural and urban landscapes. We see a strong research environment as integrative research with stakeholders, ability to facilitate and contribute to social learning processes, and knowledge production in place- and area-based research and education. We have collected (1) human and natural scientists at three Swedish universities, (2) actors and stakeholders in forestry, municipal and infrastructure planning, (3) researchers from countries with traditions of planning from below in the West and from the top in the East. This project views landscapes as patients who need diagnosis and treatment. With a suite of forest, rural and urban landscape as laboratories, we develop: (A) Diagnosis of the green infrastructure functionality, and examination of the ecological and social knowledge needed for functional green infrastructure; (B) Treatment in the form of knowledge production, social learning, analysis and visualization tools as a basis for integrated planning of actors from different levels and sectors of society.
Sweden