Landscape planning for sustainable water management: a systematic review of green infrastructure literature in the Australian context

Abstract

Australian cities have experienced a high number of floods and droughts. In Australia, green infrastructure (GI) is increasingly popular in considering natural processes in sustainable water management practices. However, to date, there has been little examination of how the academic literature has addressed the use of GI in Australian landscape planning for water management. To investigate this, we applied a thematic framework and used the PRISMA approach to identify and analyse 98 peer-reviewed papers to better understand whether and how landscape planning perspectives are considered in current water management approaches in Australia. We found a recent increase in Australian-based literature related to GI for water management. However, there is limited literature discussing the significance of landscape connectivity and the multi-functionality of GI. This article concludes with recommendations for future research on the landscape planning principles of multi-functionality, landscape connectivity, and the integration of multiple scales of GI in Australian urban water management.