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Green Infrastructure Wiki
Please feel free to add content directly or make suggestions for future refinements via the comment feature. Page templates are available if you want to add new green infrastructure elements and case studies. It is our hope that this will grow into a shared resource for a multi-disciplinary movement. We hope you find it helpful and thanks for your contribution.
The term "green infrastructure" is being applied at a wide range of landscape scales, from statewide conservation networks to streetside rain gardens. Fundamentally, green infrastructure is just a framework for recognizing the valuable services that nature provides for the human environment. At a bioregional scale, green infrastructure supports essential ecosystem functions. At a metropolitan scale, green infrastructure forms a tapestry of open space that serves and guides smarth growth. At a site scale, green infrastructure integrates functions and makes life-giving processes visible and meaningful. Large protected and connected natural habitats are the foundation for any regional green infrastructure network. Parks, trails, greenways, and other open spaces should link communities to each other and a regional landscape matrix. Holistically conceived, a green infrastructure network is also a regenerative solution to urban challenges associated with stormwater and waste management, mobility and public health, local food and energy security, and even protection from natural and man-made hazards.
Green infrastructure needs a conceptual framework that can accommodate the range of scales and functions described by the term. Every emerging field must codify its underlying patterns and principles. Biology has scientific classification and chemistry has the periodic table. Below, we propose and invite your contribution to a green infrastructure framework made up of 5 interconnected systems: habitat, community, water, mobility, and energy & materials. Each system is made up of green infrastructure elements. These elements are not discrete from one another in the precise way of chemical elements. Some are irreducibly multi-functional and defy clean categorization. Others have specific purposes. By attempting to articulate and clarify the elements that make up our green infrastructure networks, we hope to hasten their understanding and application. The real magic, of course, is in how these systems work together so we are also collecting case studies that demonstrate how these elements can be combined and layered to form high-performance landscapes. Element-specific resources are located on each element page. Resources and measures of health related to a whole system are located on each system's page. Resources and measures of health related to multiple systems or green infrastructure planning generally are located at the bottom of this page.
SYSTEM 1: HABITAT
SYSTEM 1: HABITAT
| 1UW Urban Wild | 1Wl Wetland | 1Sl Shoreline | 1WC Wildlife Crossing | 1RC Riparian Corridor | 1Gb Greenbelt | 1BH Backyard Habitat | 1UF Urban Forest |
| 1HC Habitat Corridor | |||||||
SYSTEM 2: COMMUNITY
| 2P Park | 2RL Residential Landscape | 2Wp Workplace | 2TP Third Place | 2Sy Schoolyard | 2SG Streetside Garden | 2PA Public Art | 2IR Intersection Repair |
| 2CG Community Garden | 2Sq Square | 2JS Junk Space | |||||
SYSTEM 3: WATER
| 3RG Rain Garden | 3Bs Bioswale | 3SP Stormwater Planter | 3Wp Wetpond | 3Dp Drypond | 3CW Constructed Wetland | 3GR Green Roof | 3Ci Cistern |
| 3FS Filter Strip | 3PP Porous Pavement | 3GA Green Alley | 3Tb Treebox | 3OF Oyster Filter | 3BR Blue Roof | 3SC Stormwater Channel | |
SYSTEM 4: MOBILITY
| 4T Trail | 4CS Complete Street | 4GS Green Street | 4TC Transit Connection | 4Bw Blueway | 4BL Bike Lane | 4W Woonerf | 4Gw Greenway |
| 4Sr Sharrow | 4Sw Sidewalk | 4BB Bike Box | 4PS Pedestrian Street | 4Bd Bicycle Boulevard | |||
SYSTEM 5: ENERGY & MATERIALS
| 5WF Wind Farm | 5WL Waste Landscape | 5F Farm | 5R Ranch | 5RE Road Energy | 5AL Algal-power Landscape | 5Cp Compost | |
Lake Forest Park Green Infrastructure Plan Lake Forest Park, Washington
Homer Suitability Map
Planning Sustainable Communities: A Green Infrastructure Guide for Milton Keynes and the South Midlands, England
GI Guide for British Columbia, Canada
GI applied in North East England
Open Space Seattle 2100
Open Space San Francisco 2100
Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's Green Infrastructure Program
Metropolitan Washington Green Infrastructure Tour
Maryland's Green Infrastructure Assessment
EPA and Washington, D.C. Adopt Green Infrastructure Strategy
Shoreline Green Infrastructure Plan, Shoreline, Washington
Green Infrastructure North West, England
The Conservation Fund's Baltimore County Green Infrastructure Case Study
Green Municipalities - A Guide to Green Infrastructure for Canadian Municipalities
Kansas City's Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) MetroGreen Initiative
Landscape Sustainability Metrics by UW Students
CNT's Stormwater Values Calculator
Build Carbon Neutral Calculator
King County's Public Benefit Rating System
LEED for Neighborhood Development
Sustainable Sites Initiative
How Green Infrastructure Measures Up to Structural Stormwater Services
City of Shoreline Sustainability Indicators
NPR's Marketplace Reports on New Jersey's Quantification of the Value of it's Undeveloped Land
Public Benefit Recording System (PBRS) for Green Infrastructure
The Conservation Fund's green infrastructure programs
GI webzine of the Green Infrastructure Partnership in British Columbia
Urban Open Space Foundation
EPA's green infrastructure partnership
Green Infrastructure case studies by students of Nancy Rottle at the University of Washington
Green Infrastructure article by Steve Nicholas, City of Seattle's Director of Sustainability and Environment
Urban Greensheds article by Brice Maryman of SvR
Playbook for Green Buildings and Neighborhoods
Sustainable Raindrops, Cleaning New York Harbor by Greening the Urban Environment, a report by Riverkeeper
Green Infrastructure Plan Evaluation Frameworks by McDonald, Benedict, et al.
How Cities Use Parks for Green Infrastructure by McMahon and Benedict
Green Infrastructure Report to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, UK, by David Goode
Growing with Green Infrastructure by Karen Williamson
Green Cities, a Cornell class on urban ecological design
Strategic Conservation Planning Using a Green Infrastucture Approach (a GI planning course)
Green Infrastructure Resolution by US Council of Mayors
Use of Green Infrastructure in NPDES Permits
EPA Green Infrastructure Statement of Intent
Environmental Council of the States Statement Supporting Green Infrastructure
Green Infrastructure Permeates Through Chicago, CNT blog article
The Living Site and Infrastructure Challenge by Cascadia
Green Futures Research and Design Lab at the University of Washington
Ergonomics of the City: Green Infrastructure and Social Benefits, article by Kathleen Wolf
Journal of Conservation Planning
National Association of Realtors Magazine
Infraestructura Verde y Nuestros Parques ("Green Infrastructure & Our Parks"), a report from Puerto Rico
Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes + Communities, American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Conference 2008
Traverse City Article abou Green Infrastructure with Funding via Tax Abatements
EPA's Green Infrastructure Funding Opportunities page
LIFE, EU's conservation funding mechanism
Global Katoomba Meeting: Developing an Infrastructure Fund for the Planet
Green Infrastructure, (On Common Ground: jounal of the National Association of Realtors, Summer 2008)
The Greening of America: American Cities Use Trees as Green Infrastructure (Washingon Post, April 25, 2008)
New York uses green infrastructure to combat their Combined Sewer Overflow (CS0) problems - February 11, 2008
House Panel Passes Green Infrastructure Bill - February 8, 2008
Loudon County Virginia's Green Infrasturture - February 7, 2008
Moving from Stormwater Management to RAINwater Management: A Federal Fisheries Perspective - February 7, 2008
Latest page update: made by ncormier
, Aug 20 2008, 5:42 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by ncormier
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- complete history)
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- complete history)
Keyword tags:
Civil Engineering
green infrastructure
green infrastructure planning
Landscape Architecture
LID
low impact development
low-impact development
planning
smart growth
Stormwater
sustainability
The Conservation Fund
urban green infrastructure
More Info: links to this page
| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | |
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| marcTinkelenberg | Pattern Language | 4 | Aug 9 2007, 1:52 PM EDT by marcTinkelenberg | |
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Thread started: Jun 20 2007, 9:41 PM EDT
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Hi Nate, after your excellent presentation in São Paulo, and looking at your "table of elements" I have to imagine that you are familiar with Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language. I was wondering why you wouldn't refer to your system as a Pattern Language for Green Infrastructure. This would make a lot of sense, considering that Green infrastructure elements will, in real life, interact with Town Elements, Transportation Elements etc.
If you have a look at Alexander's pattern for "Green Streets" it will probably help you with definitions. Friends of mine are use pattern languages for describing and designing man-machine interfaces, and I think your layered approach is a very rich extension to the concept of pattern languages. |
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| ncormier | welcome | 1 | Jul 19 2007, 7:02 PM EDT by Firehock | |
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Thread started: Apr 27 2007, 3:19 AM EDT
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feel free to add comments here or begin fleshing out the content in the element and case study pages
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| ncormier | element naming convention | 0 | Apr 30 2007, 2:13 PM EDT by ncormier | |
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Thread started: Apr 30 2007, 2:13 PM EDT
Watch
here is the process to mint your very own elements: keep each element name to one or two words. for its table code, it first gets a number based on its layer. after the number add one or two letters. if the name has two words, use two caps. if it is one word and multiple syllables use a cap and a lowercase. if it is one word and one syllable use one cap. then make an element page in the appropriate layer folder. name the element page with its code, colon, element name (3RG: Rain Garden, for example). there is a template that you can select when you add a new page that will automatically drop in all main topics for that element page. then turn your element code into a link in the table that connects to the new page. for extra credit, create a case study for each new element and link back and forth between your elements and case studies.
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| ncormier | performance criteria for people habitat | 0 | Apr 27 2007, 3:42 PM EDT by ncormier | |
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Thread started: Apr 27 2007, 3:42 PM EDT
Watch
i had an exciting conversation with david barth today. he's got some good ideas about defining successful open space by the activities that people can enjoy. this would be a way to think about performance criteria for the the people habitat and vibrant connections layers. so far, the emphasis of the wiki is on element pages and case study pages, but each layer page could hold info that applies to the healthy functioning of that whole system. for the natural drainage layer, there could be some watershed-wide standards and for the wildlife habitat, some landscape ecology standards could be referenced.
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