What is Green Infrastructure?

What is Green Infrastructure?

Green Infrastructure is our Nation's natural life support system - an interconnected network of protected land and water that supports native species, maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources and contributes to the health and quality of life for America's communities and people.

Why Green Infrastructure?

Most land and water conservation initiatives in the United States are reactive not proactive; haphazard not systematic; piecemeal not holistic; single-scale not multi-scale, single-purpose not multi-functional. Current conservation efforts often focus on individual pieces of land, limiting their conservation benefits to the environment and human health. The Mission of GreenInfrastructure.Net is to illustrate that identifying and planning for Green Infrastructure - multi-purpose green space networks - provides a framework for smart conservation and smart growth.

A city, county or state would never build a road, water and electrical system piece by piece, with no advanced planning or coordination between different system components and jurisdictions. These built infrastructure systems are planned, designed and invested in far in advance of their actual use. We should plan, design and invest in our Green Infrastructure following the same principles and approaches that are used for built infrastructure. A large coalition of public and private organizations are advancing the concept of Green Infrastructure nationwide.

source: http://www.greeninfrastructure.net/

Definition of Green Infrastructure

Green Infrastructure is the Nation's natural life support system - a strategically planned and managed network of wilderness, parks, greenways, conservation easements, and working lands with conservation value that supports native species, maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources, and contributes to the health and quality of life for America's communities and people.

The Green Infrastructure network encompasses a wide range of landscape elements, including: natural areas - such as wetlands, woodlands, waterways, and wildlife habitat; public and private conservation lands - such as nature preserves, wildlife corridors, greenways, and parks; and public and private working lands of conservation value - such as forests, farms, and ranches. It also incorporates outdoor recreation and trail networks.

According to Webster's New World Dictionary, Infrastructure is defined as - "the substructure or underlying foundation, especially the basic installations and facilities on which the continuance and growth of a community or state depends". When we think of infrastructure we think of built infrastructure such as roads, electric power lines and water systems as well as social infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and libraries. However, the concept of Green Infrastructure elevates air, land, and water to an equal footing with built infrastructure and transforms open space from "nice to have" to "must have." At the same time, green infrastructure helps frame the most efficient location for development and growth - and related gray infrastructure - ensuring that developers, citizens, and communities capture the cost advantages of location and create and protect household and community amenities.

What gives the term Green Infrastructure its staying power is its ability to invoke images of planned networks of green spaces that benefit wildlife and people, link urban settings to rural ones and, like other infrastructure, forms an integral part of government budgets and programs.

Benefits of Green Infrastructure

Green infrastructure provides a diversity of public and private functions and values that address both natural and human needs and benefit the environment and communities. Green infrastructure systems help protect and restore naturally functioning ecosystems and provide a framework for future development. In doing so, they provide a diversity of ecological, social, and economic functions and benefits:

• enriched habitat and biodiversity;
• maintenance of natural landscape processes;
• cleaner air and water;
• increased recreational and transportation opportunities;
• improved health; and
• better connection to nature and sense of place.

Well planned green space has also been shown to increase property values and decrease the costs of public infrastructure and public services, including the costs for stormwater management and water treatment systems.

Investing in green infrastructure can often be more cost effective than conventional public works projects. For example, in the 1990s New York City avoided the need to spend $6�$8 billion on new water filtration and treatment plants by instead purchasing and protecting watershed land in the Catskill Mountains for about $1.5 billion. Likewise Arnold, Missouri, has dramatically reduced the cost to taxpayers of disaster relief and flood damage repair by purchasing threatened properties and creating a greenway in the flood plain.

Two nonprofit organizations, the Center for Neighborhood Technology and Urban Logic, believe a shift in governmental accounting rules may help standardize these examples. In 1999, the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued comprehensive changes in state and local government financial reporting. The standards, known as �GASB- 34,� require governments to develop, maintain and present capital accounts in their balance sheets. The two organizations are working with economists, accountants, bond financiers and others to explore using GASB-34 to help capture our natural environment�s inherent capital.

Just as all forms of built infrastructure are promoted for the wide range of public and private benefits they provide, we need to promote Green Infrastructure systems actively for the wide range of essential ecological and social functions, values and benefits that accrue to people and nature.

Principles for Green Infrastructure Planning, Design and Implementation Principle 1: Identify and protect green infrastructure before development. Green infrastructure needs to be identified and protected in advance of land development due to the high cost of restoration and the difficulty of creating human-made systems that function as well as natural systems. Identifying where green infrastructure is needed and desired will aid in public and private protection of critical resources. Principle 2: Engage diverse people and organizations in your green infrastructure initiative, obtaining input from representatives of different professions and sectors. To be successful, Green Infrastructure initiatives must excite and engage many people. Just like built infrastructure systems are planned and implemented through an open participation process, Green Infrastructure systems must be planned and implemented involving public input and incorporating the comments and issues of citizens, community organizations, and private landowners.

Principle 3: Recognize that linkage is key, for connecting natural areas and features and for connecting people and programs. The desired outcome for all Green Infrastructure initiatives is the creation of a network of green spaces that maintains vital ecological processes, wildlife populations, and human health. Just like the nation's interstate, state, local and private roads are designed holistically to create a functional transportation system, we need to design Green Infrastructure holistically, creating physically connected green space systems through the protection and restoration of vital ecological areas and linkages. Principle 4: Design green infrastructure systems that function at different scales, across political boundaries, and through diverse landscapes. Our nation's transportation, power, communication and other gray infrastructure systems are designed to connect across multiple jurisdictions and incorporate facilities that function at different scales. Likewise, we need to design Green Infrastructure systems strategically to connect across urban, suburban, rural and wilderness landscapes and incorporate green space elements and functions at the state, regional, community and parcel scales. Principle 5: Ground green infrastructure activities in sound science and land-use planning theories and practices. Just as our transportation, water, electric and telecommunication systems are grounded in the theories and practices of diverse professional disciplines (for example, traffic engineering), we need to design and plan Green Infrastructure systems according to the theories and practices of scientific and land planning professions such as conservation biology, landscape ecology, urban and regional planning, landscape architecture and geography.

Principle 6: Fund green infrastructure up-front as a primary public investment, using the full range of available financing options. Our nation's gray infrastructure - our transportation, water, electric, telecommunication and other essential community support systems - are financed as primary budgetary line items. State and local governments use dedicated gas taxes and other public funding mechanisms to pay for the planning, rights-of-way acquisition, construction, maintenance and improvement of our highway systems. Likewise, we need to finance Green Infrastructure planning, protection, management and/or restoration as a priority public investment. Principle 7: Emphasize that green infrastructure benefits are afforded to all, to nature and to people. Green Infrastructure provides a diversity of public and private functions and values that address both natural and human needs and benefit the environment and communities. These benefits need to be documented, both in terms of their ecological values for people and the environment and their economic values to society. Principle 8: Make green infrastructure the framework for conservation and development. The gray infrastructure upon which America's communities depend - which provides the framework for future growth and development - is planned in advance as a system of interconnected parts. We need to embrace Green Infrastructure as the framework for conservation.

Elements of Successful
Green Infrastructure Initiatives

Element 1: Involve diverse stakeholders as partners in your green infrastructure initiative.

• Strategy 1.1: Provide an open leadership forum, to share experiences and expectations and to build consensus.
• Strategy 1.2: Create a shared vision that is compelling, practical and inspiring.
• Strategy 1.3: Inform and educate the public.
• Strategy 1.4: �Stay the course� to provide ongoing leadership and support.

Element 2: Design your green infrastructure network to link diverse green space elements.

• Strategy 2.1: Identify desired network attributes and gather data that represents their spatial arrangement across the landscape.
• Strategy 2.2: Lay the network out holistically to connect green space elements across multiple landscapes, jurisdictions, and scales (the identification and mapping of green space elements is key).
• Strategy 2.3: Evaluated and prioritized network components for conservation action.

Element 3: Develop an implementation program to make your network design a reality, and begin undertaking activities to work toward desired goals.

• Strategy 3.1: Identify the range of implementation tools available for your community, region and state.
• Strategy 3.2: Create an �implementation quilt�, �spatially� matching financial, management and other identified tools to your network design.
• Strategy 3.3: Prepare a plan of action that involves participants from the public, private and nonprofit sectors.

Element 4: Actively sell your strategic vision and plan to the public.

• Strategy 4.1: Develop rationale and convincing information that documents the need for and the benefits of your vision and plan.
• Strategy 4.2: Excite and engage other agencies, organizations and the general public.
• Strategy 4.3: Make connections between green infrastructure initiatives and other activities within and beyond the community.

The modern greenways movement
also has influenced green infrastructure
planning and implementation. Although
green infrastructure and greenways
share a common origin, green
infrastructure differs from greenways
in at least three major ways:

Ecology vs. Recreation—Green infrastructure
emphasizes ecology, not
recreation.

Bigger vs. Smaller—Green infrastructure
includes large, ecologically
important hubs, as well as key landscape
linkages.

Framework for Growth—Green
infrastructure can shape urban form and
provide a framework for growth. It
works best when the framework preidentifies
both ecologically significant
lands and suitable development areas.

http://www.conservationfund.org/pdf/GI_RR.pdf

How Cities Use Parks for Green Infrastructure

Executive Summary
Just as growing communities need to upgrade and expand their built infrastructure of roads, sewers, and
utilities, they also need to upgrade and expand their green infrastructure, the interconnected system of
green spaces that conserves natural ecosystem values and functions, sustains clear air and water, and
provides a wide array of benefits to people and wildlife. Green infrastructure is a community's natural
life support system, the ecological framework needed for environmental and economic sustainability.1
In their role as green infrastructure, parks and open space are a community necessity. By planning and
managing urban parks as parts of an interconnected green space system, cities can reduce flood control
and stormwater management costs. Parks can also protect biological diversity and preserve essential
ecological functions while serving as a place for recreation and civic engagement.They can even help
shape urban form and reduce opposition to development, especially when planned in concert
with other open spaces.

Key Point #1
Creating an interconnected system of parks and
open space is manifestly more beneficial than
creating parks in isolation.

Key Point #2
Cities can use parks to help preserve essential
ecological functions and to protect biodiversity.

Key Point #3
When planned as part of a system of green
infrastructure, parks can help shape urban form
and buffer incompatible uses.

Key Point #4
Cities can use parks to reduce public costs for
stormwater management, flood control, transportation,
and other forms of built infrastructure.

http://www.greeninfrastructure.net/?article=2073&back=true

In urban environments, green infrastructure includes green roofs, urban trees, botanical gardens, parks, waterways and forested areas. Moreover, when the system’s components are functioning together properly, vital ecological processes and services (e.g., absorption of storm water runoff, cleaning fresh water, climate moderation, oxygen supply, soil enrichment, creation of wildlife habitat, opportunities for recreation etc.) are well provided and city residents and wildlife are healthy.

www.greenhomenyc.org/page/forum0502 -