Strategic Green Infrastructure Planning

A Multi-Scale Approach

Karen Firehock

• Publisher: Island Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781610916936
• Topic: Architektur
• Subtopic: Architektur Allgemein

From New York City's urban forest and farmland in Virginia to the vast Sonoran Desert of Arizona and riverside parks in Vancouver, Washington, green infrastructure is becoming a priority for cities, counties, and states across America. Recognition of the need to manage our natural assets—trees, soils, water, and habitats—as part of our green infrastructure is vital to creating livable places and healthful landscapes. But the land management decisions about how to create plans, where to invest money, and how to get the most from these investments are complex, influenced by differing landscapes, goals, and stakeholders. Strategic Green Infrastructure Planning addresses the nuts and bolts of planning and preserving natural assets at a variety of scales—from dense urban environments to scenic rural landscapes. A practical guide to creating effective and well-crafted plans and then implementing them, the book presents a six-step process developed and field-tested by the Green Infrastructure Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. Well-organized chapters explain how each step, from setting goals to implementing opportunities, can be applied to a variety of scenarios, customizable to the reader's target geographical location. Chapters draw on a diverse group of case studies, from the arid open spaces of the Sonoran Desert to the streets of Jersey City. Abundant full color maps, photographs, and illustrations complement the text.For planners, elected officials, developers, conservationists, and others interested in the creation and maintenance of open space lands and urban green infrastructure projects or promoting a healthy economy, this book offers a comprehensive yet flexible approach to conceiving, refining, and implementing successful projects.

1

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WHAT IS GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE?

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The Natural Assets That Sustain Us Including:

• Forests

• Water Resources: Rivers, Wetlands, Lakes, Estuaries, Aquifers

• Soils That Support Agriculture

• Unique Geologic Features and Landscape Forms

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CHAPTER 1 - Green Infrastructure

Chapter One provides a rationale for why we need to think of environmental resources as ‘green infrastructure.’ It includes a definition, explanation and short history of the term ‘green infrastructure,’ along with basic ecological concepts and the reasons for undertaking an inventory of natural assets to create a green infrastructure network.

WHY ARE ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES PART OF OUR GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE?

Thinking about environmental resources as ‘green infrastructure’ is a way to recognize that they have value to people. Unfortunately, many of us take natural resources for granted, even though they sustain our very existence. Without clean air, water and agricultural soils, we could not survive. How we manage our landscape directly translates into whether we have the high-quality air, water and nutrients to keep us healthy.

In addition, these natural resources are valuable to us in social terms – terms that are difficult to quantify, but include the social and emotional benefits provided by natural beauty and the open, unspoiled vistas that many of us appreciate. In short, they should be considered our ‘green infrastructure.’

Thinking of natural resources as ‘green infrastructure’ helps us recognize that they provide life-sustaining functions, along with tangible economic and social benefits. It also emphasizes that these natural resources need to be connected as a network because they are interdependent and because connected landscapes allow species to recover and repopulate areas that may have been damaged by such disturbances as drought, forest fires, diseases and hurricanes.

“Green infrastructure (GI) planning is a strategic landscape approach to open space conservation, whereby local communities, landowners and organizations work together to identify, design and conserve their local land network, in order to maintain healthy ecological functioning.”

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans and Hurricane Sandy which bludgeoned states in the mid-Atlantic, states are looking to restore and protect their ‘green infrastructure.’ New York and New Jersey, which suffered many billions of dollars of damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, are beginning to look towards green infrastructure as a way to mitigate risk and prevent damage.

In New York they are looking to replenish the marshes that once acted as natural storm surge protectors and restore the wetlands that once provided water filtration and flood control. Many scientific studies demonstrate that restoring ‘natural infrastructure’ can reduce significantly the damage from storm surges. “A 2007 study of New Jersey’s wetlands, for example, estimated that freshwater wetlands saved the state $9.4 billion per year in filtrating and flood control costs, while its saltwater wetlands delivered $1.2 billion per year in protection. Hackensack, NJ – one of the hardest hit states in Hurricane Sandy – lost more than 75 percent of its wetlands between 1889 and 1995, according to the US Geological Survey” (Cassin 2012).

WHAT IS GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING?

The recognition of the need to plan for conserving our natural assets has led to the field of green infrastructure (GI) planning, in which local communities, landowners and organizations work together to identify, design and conserve their local land network to maintain healthy ecological functioning. In short, it is an organizing construct that enables us to think about our natural resources as a critical part of our life support system. They are ‘green’ because they are part of the natural environment, and they are ‘infrastructure’ because they provide those basic services that we all need for healthful and restorative living.

Green infrastructure planning evaluates the types of natural and cultural resources available today and prioritizes those assets that are most important to us, or that best meet our current and future needs. In other words, a green infrastructure strategy includes the process of identifying, evaluating and prioritizing those areas we deem critical to preserving a healthy community for the future. Most importantly, we need to not only prioritize them; we need to implement actions to ensure their conservation over the long term.

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THE SIX STEPS

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To create a green infrastructure plan, you should follow these six steps:

Step 1. Set Goals:

What does your community or organization value? Determine which natural assets and functions are most important to you.

Step 2. Review Data:

What do you know or need to know, to map the values identified in Step 1?

Step 3. Make Asset Maps:

Map your community’s highest-valued natural assets that contribute to a healthy ecology and also support cultural and economic values –Based on the goals established in Step 1 and data from Step 2.

Step 4. Assess Risks:

What assets are most at risk and what could be lost if no action is taken?

Step 5. Determine Opportunities:

Determine opportunities for protection or restoration. Based on those assets and risks you have identified; determine which ones could or should be restored or improved? And which need the attention soonest?

Step 6. Implement Opportunities:

Include your natural asset maps in both daily and long-range planning such as park planning, comprehensive planning and zoning, transportation planning, tourism development and economic planning.

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SIX STEPS FOR COMMUNITY GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING

During its field tests, the GIC identified six steps necessary to create a natural asset inventory and strategy. The following is a summary of those steps; they are explained in more detail in the following chapters.

STEP 1. Set Your Goals: What Does Your Community or Organization Value? Determine Which Natural Assets and Functions Are Most Important to You.

All GI planning efforts must start with the establishment of goals. What does your community or organization most value about your natural resources? Is it:

• Forests that provide clean air, water filtration, wildlife habitat or wood products?

• Recharge areas to replenish aquifers used for drinking water supplies?

• Water quality to support healthy fisheries?

• The landscape settings around historic landscapes and battlefields?

• Working farms?

• Nature based recreation, such as hiking trails and recreation areas?

• Landscape features, such as key views and vistas?

• Connections across the landscape for wildlife corridors?

STEP 2. Review Data: What Do You Know, or Need to Know, to Map the Values Identified In Step 1?

Once you have established your goals, it is time to assemble and review all the existing relevant data for your local area:

• Research existing studies and available data: What are their findings and are they relevant? Are the data accurate?

Examples of data include watershed plans, wildlife plans, open space plans, ecological inventories, groundwater studies and air studies.

• Determine what data are still needed if you are to implement your goals: If you are using a Geographic Information System (GIS), you will require data to be arranged spatially in digital layers, which can be analyzed by overlaying them to show patterns and priorities.

Examples of data that you might need to collect include stream buffers, watersheds, key agricultural soils, recreation routes, forested areas, historic structures and wetlands.

A viewshed is a landscape that can be seen from a particular vantage point. It is particularly important in the context of historical sites, such as battlefields and historic houses, where it forms part of those assets’ history or supports scenic vistas for nature-based recreation.

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