GI was first adopted in the mid 1990s in the Kent area of the Thames Gateway. This followed on from work by the then Countryside Commission, which included the adoption of community-orientated landscape improvement plans for each of England's twelve Community Forests. 

The GI approach to planning is a three stage process aimed at enhancing the physical and functional connectivity of each GI asset.  The three stages are:

1. Identifying the needs, for example social, environmental and economic, of the area in question;
2. Assessing whether these needs are met by GI at present and in the future; and
3. Conserving or creating components of GI accordingly. 

The GI approach is not about constraining development but rather its aim is to provide planners, developers and other professionals with a tool that enables them to create a powerful network of multifunctional GI assets that is essential for both existing and new sustainable communities and without which public resistance to development is likely to increase. 

The GI approach has already been adopted in many areas of the UK, including Cambridge, the Thames Gateway, South Hampshire, Bedfordshire and Luton, the North West and Milton Keynes.  There are also international success stories emerging from the GI approach, notably the Biotope Strategy developed in Berlin, which is now in use in other cities.  The national adoption of the GI approach will ensure long term sustainability of development and continuity of GI on both a local and national scale.