Multifunctional Patterns and Governance Challenges of Blue–Green Infrastructure in Puebla, Mexico

Blue–Green infrastructure (BGI) consists of spaces with water bodies and vegetation inside the urban territory. Due to their characteristics, they have the potential to provide many functions and benefits to the inhabitants of the city, such as open space, places for social encounters and a healthy lifestyle, shady and humid environments for climate regulation and education, and economic well-being. The accumulation of these functions is denominated multifunctionality. The BGI multifunctionality depends on social and physical factors. In this chapter, two of these factors are reviewed: the size of the BGI and the urban legislation for the City of Puebla and its metropolitan area, in central Mexico. The measurement of multifunctionality is carried out with the satellite images of Google Maps Streetview and Google Earth Pro. Subsequently, a cluster analysis is done to classify those BGIs that were similar in their size and number of functions provided. Most of the BGI in Puebla are relatively small, on average 0.56 ha, and provide less than 3 functions. The larger ones (average 2.02 ha) can provide up to 5 functions, the largest number of functions observed. Additionally, there is a relationship between the size of the BGI and the number of functions provided, and the presence of water bodies. On the other hand, the instruments of urban legislation of different governmental scales are consulted, locating in their content the normativity related to BGI. According to the analysis of the urban legislation, the multifunctionality of the BGI is not addressed in a relevant way at the various levels of government, i.e., municipality, state, and federation. In conclusion, most of the Blue–Green Infrastructure (BGI) in the city of Puebla is relatively small and could enhance its functionality through redesign and modifications in urban legislation.