Green infrastructure (GI) is a nature-based solution that encompasses all actions that rely on ecosystems and the services they provide to respond to various societal challenges such as climate change, food security or disaster risk. The objective of this work is to analyze the state of the art and latest trends in research on GI related to the water cycle for the period 2002–2019. For this purpose, a bibliometric study is carried out taking as reference the two most important scientific databases, Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The results show that, as of 2013, there is an exponential increase in the number of publications. This is due to the fact that significant regions of the planet, such as Europe, have adopted strategies aimed at promoting the use of GI since 2013. The keyword analysis points out that ecosystem services is the most relevant concept, which shows the capacity of these infrastructures to facilitate multiple goods and services related to the water cycle. New lines of research are opened up which are based on the analysis of other elements of GI related to water, such as groundwater.

This article aims to analyze research trends on the role played by green infrastructures as a tool seeking to address current environmental challenges, such as climate change, that put human well-being at risk. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis was used on documents obtained from the WoS database, and selecting the combination of words “green infrastructures”, “ecosystem services”, and “climate change”. The results of this study point to the potential for Green Infrastructures to become a major strategic factor in addressing the global environmental and social challenges facing cities. The findings obtained are relevant to researchers, professionals, and others working on green infrastructure research as tools to address current global environmental problems, such as climate change, urban pollution, loss of biodiversity, or the risk of emergence of new epidemics or diseases.

Background: Green Infrastructure (GI) is defined as a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural spaces that provide society, in both rural and urban areas, with a large number of goods and services of great value and economic importance such as clean air and water, carbon storage, pollination or protection against the effects of climate change. Traditionally, municipalities, like other territorial units, are characterized by a series of social and economic indicators that determine their degree of local development. The objective of this article is to identify and assess, through a system of indicators, what role urban and rural municipalities in Andalusia (Spain) play in the provision and reception of ecosystem services. To this end, Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques are used and a cluster analysis is carried out to contrast the results.Results: Rural municipalities show the largest portion of GI area in the whole region. However, they show a low socioeconomic level, with high unemployment rates.Conclusions: It can be said that the municipalities in rural areas are "ecologically" financing the entire Andalusian population. Faced with this situation, the decisions, and actions of policymakers in this region should aim at promoting measures that can restore and conserve GIs, addressing the demographic and/or socioeconomic imbalances of the region.