Ensure every new transport and active travel infrastructure project incorporates elements of blue-green infrastructure, and seek opportunities for enhancing/expanding blue-green infrastructure.
Objective 2: Protect nature on land and at sea, across and beyond Protected Areas
Priority Action 13. Enhance biodiversity in Scotland’s urban green and blue spaces
Scottish Government guidance for cycling infrastructure includes expectations that schemes consider opportunities for green and blue infrastructure such as planting and sustainable drainage within design.
Scottish Government placemaking guidance requires integration of green and blue infrastructure into the design of streets and places.
NatureScot guidance supports the use of green and blue infrastructure to deliver biodiversity, climate resilience and water management benefits.
SEPA promotes nature-based solutions, including natural flood management approaches that align with blue-green infrastructure principles.
There is no evidence in these sources of a national requirement or monitoring system ensuring consistent application across all transport and active travel projects.
Evidence from State of Nature Scotland shows long-term biodiversity decline, including a 15% average decline in monitored species since 1994 and ongoing declines across many species groups in recent decades.
The Biodiversity Intactness Index indicates that biodiversity globally has already declined substantially from pre-modern levels, highlighting the need for system-wide ecological recovery rather than project-level interventions.
NatureScot indicators also show ongoing pressures from habitat fragmentation and reduced ecological connectivity across Scotland.
Taken together, this evidence suggests that while blue-green infrastructure can provide local ecological benefits, current implementation is not yet consistent or widespread enough to meaningfully shift biodiversity trends at scale.
Transport Scotland – Cycling by Design 2026
Scottish Government – Green Infrastructure: Design and Placemaking
NatureScot – Green Infrastructure
https://www.nature.scot/indicators“>NatureScot – Biodiversity Indicators
State of Nature Scotland
Natural History Museum – Biodiversity Intactness Index
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