Many communities across the country are integrating green infrastructure practices into the local landscape to meet community goals while improving environmental outcomes. Installing green infrastructure can help create more green space, improve stormwater management and water quality, fulfill NPDES MS4 permit requirements, alleviate flooding conditions, and protect and improve the health of existing surface and groundwater resources.
Section 502 of the Clean Water Act defines green infrastructure as "...the range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters."
Contents
- Identify public parcels and projects.
- Assess areas that are potentially suitable for green infrastructure.
- Continue to reference and revise assessment results.
- Perform site investigations and develop design concepts.
- Develop and update procedures to implement green infrastructure.
- Develop operation and maintenance procedures for public green infrastructure.
- Resources
Identify public parcels and projects
You can install green infrastructure in almost every setting—from a small sidewalk or right-of-way in an urban downtown area to an existing public park or parking lot. Publicly owned parcels are likely the sites where you can most easily implement green infrastructure in your community.
Create a list of upcoming public projects and consider whether those project sites, or portions thereof, might be suitable candidates for green infrastructure. In this way, you can integrate green infrastructure into the early stages of planning a site’s layout. Combining stormwater objectives into public projects can decrease costs in the long term.
Periodically review and update the list of projects. Municipal departments, such as public works, parks and recreation, urban development, building, planning, and engineering, should update and cross-pollinate this list of public projects, as those departments all undertake projects on public property. The project list should also include planned projects from community capital and master planning initiatives.
Maintain your list as a GIS map or other list format and make it readily available to other municipal departments. This will help facilitate coordination and communication among departments so they can readily identify and seize green infrastructure opportunities when they arise.
Lead by Example: Publicize the Benefits of Green Infrastructure
Integrating green infrastructure into the design of planned public projects will increase its visibility to the public, which will help encourage private developers and property owners to use green infrastructure in their own projects. Regardless of size, public projects can present a great opportunity to demonstrate the process and the multitude of benefits of using green infrastructure, which include:
- Localized minor flood mitigation
- Improved aesthetics
- Public green space creation or preservation
- Habitat creation or enhancement
- Air quality improvement
- Heat island effect reduction
- Groundwater recharge
A well-placed green infrastructure retrofit project or new installation can also serve as great public education resource.
Leverage Resources
Identifying projects with green infrastructure opportunities may be easier than you think! The flexibility of green infrastructure design means that it can be a part of most projects. The first step is to identify locations for green infrastructure opportunities that overlap with capital improvement and master planning project sites.
Assess areas that are potentially suitable for green infrastructure
In addition to understanding the location of upcoming and potential municipal project sites, you can use geographic information to assess each location’s potential suitability for green infrastructure implementation based on its physical characteristics. This type of assessment is a useful planning exercise that allows you to prioritize locations with greater potential.
Consider implementing a desktop, GIS-based site suitability assessment methodology across the entire community. The assessment should consider the suitability of sites for two different categories of green infrastructure—infiltrating and non-infiltrating practices—each of which relies on a slightly different set of site characteristics to function most effectively. Consider site characteristics based on the availability, reliability, and accuracy of data for the given location.
Many communities experience localized flooding as a result of drainage constraints and are particularly interested in understanding whether and where green infrastructure might be suitable to help mitigate that flooding. In many cases, the drainage areas are suitable for both infiltrating and non-infiltrating practices, but in general, a broader area is suitable for non-infiltrating practices. This makes sense, as the site characteristic criteria for infiltrating practices are slightly more constraining than those for non-infiltrating practices.
The site suitability assessment will allow you to produce maps that identify a variety of green infrastructure practices within each category (infiltrating versus non-infiltrating). These site suitability maps will also help you identify areas where opportunities exist to pursue retrofit projects or standalone green infrastructure demonstration projects due to the benefits and likelihood of successful installation. Ultimately, site visits and site investigations will further clarify these results.
To avoid having to implement green infrastructure opportunistically, you should pre-emptively identify and refine a list of areas that are most suitable for green infrastructure, then further investigate and develop design concepts for the selected sites.
Infiltrating or Non-Infiltrating Practices
Many green infrastructure practices, such as bioretention areas, bioswales, and tree trenches, can be designed as either infiltrating or non-infiltrating practices to accommodate the specific site conditions where they are installed (i.e., whether an underdrain system or liner is needed). In many communities, you must by ordinance install infiltrating practices where underlying soil allows site stormwater runoff to soak into the ground.
Site conditions to assess generally include:
- Slope
- Hydrologic soil group
- Depth to groundwater and bedrock
- Location within a buffer to a waterbody
- Flood zone or drinking water supply protection area
- Past soil contamination
- Location relative to an impaired waterbody
- Existence of paved or pervious area
Continue to reference and revise assessment results
You should continue to use the site suitability assessment methodology and refine the data inputs as new data become available or community priorities change. For example, accurate depth to groundwater data might not be available for your initial assessment, but such data can provide a useful additional criterion to evaluate site suitability for infiltrating green infrastructure practices, which often require a minimum clearance of 2 to 4 feet from the bottom of the feature to the seasonal high groundwater level. The assessment could be redone to provide more accurate results if such data become available. You do not need to recreate the site suitability maps for every project; instead, the maps can serve as a standing reference until new data are available or site conditions change considerably.
Many additional desktop tools and methodologies are available to help you assess and plan for green infrastructure implementation. These tools require varied levels of technical knowledge and data input, and they target a variety of specific goals—mostly related to calculating the pollutant removal anticipated from some set of stormwater management practices.
Perform site investigations and develop design concepts
After identifying potential sites through your suitability assessment, investigate each site to identify additional constraints and opportunities that might not be visible using GIS data alone. For example, the presence of utility infrastructure might not be available in GIS but can often be readily observed at the site; it could influence whether a green infrastructure practice is feasible at a specific location. In addition, a site visit could reveal a change in land use that is not reflected in the latest GIS data, or a stormwater-related impact—such as sediment buildup, erosion, or prevalence of invasive species—that might influence the design or selection of green infrastructure practices. These site investigations also present opportunities to begin sketching out conceptual designs for potential green infrastructure practices, particularly if a project involves retrofitting or renovating an existing site.
A conceptual design for a green infrastructure practice can range from a hand-written permanent marker sketch on an aerial photo to a sketch on a tablet computer with mobile GIS capabilities. The idea is to identify 1) a location that is the appropriate size for the proposed feature; 2) a feasible mechanism for draining water into the feature; and 3) a feasible mechanism for discharging water via infiltration, an underdrain connection to existing infrastructure, or overflow. The concept design should consider an estimate of the size of the contributing drainage area and the basic treatment or detention volume. A designer or engineer with stormwater management experience should make all assumptions in the concept sketch.
Lead by Example: Establish a Design Policy
Consider establishing a policy to design green infrastructure practices on public properties and within public projects. These projects—whether they be streetscape projects, park renovations, or new facilities—should strive to meet or exceed the stormwater management design standards required under local ordinance and land development code for private projects.
Develop and update procedures to implement green infrastructure
Convert the green infrastructure site suitability assessment, site visit, and concept plan into action by developing implementation procedures. Implementing green infrastructure requires funding, creativity, an understanding of municipal processes, and the ability to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. Revisit and update these procedures often—every year, if possible, but at least every few years. These procedures will enable your municipality to opportunistically implement green infrastructure as capital projects arise—and also create standalone projects.
Assign timeframes or actual implementation deadlines to candidate sites based on how they align with known public project schedules or other development timelines. This implementation plan can also serve as a basis for grant funding applications, which helps to prepare the municipal stormwater program for funding opportunities when they arise. The implementation timeline will be an estimate but having a basic schedule will help you keep projects on your radar screen. Multiple municipal departments—such as public works, parks and recreation, urban development, building, planning, and engineering—should provide input on the timeline development, as those departments all undertake projects on public property.
Update the implementation timeline on an annual to five-year basis to note projects that have been implemented and add new projects to the list. You could revisit the desktop green infrastructure suitability assessment process, as needed, and develop an updated list of public projects where green infrastructure might be incorporated—again performing site visits, developing concept sketches, and assigning a timeline for implementation.
To push the implementation of green infrastructure in public projects into action more quickly and to lead by example, consider developing a policy or ordinance that requires public agencies to consider integrating green infrastructure at the conceptual design phase for all projects on public property. The policy or regulation could include a mechanism to release some projects from this requirement if the public agency can show that green infrastructure is not feasible or effective.
Develop operation and maintenance procedures for public green infrastructure
Green infrastructure, like all infrastructure, must be maintained to function properly over time and provide the planned services and benefits that the community needs. When implementation procedures identify a green infrastructure practice, you should begin to consider who will be responsible for maintaining it regularly.
Green infrastructure practices sometimes straddle the traditional boundaries between landscaping and drainage or highway infrastructure. This can result in projects not receiving the required maintenance because they do not fall completely within a specific category of operations. In addition, assigning the maintenance responsibility to one department can be challenging because green infrastructure may be located on properties that various municipal departments generally maintain or operate.
Some communities allocate green infrastructure maintenance based on which department manages that particular parcel, while other communities allocate maintenance responsibilities to one department, such as public works. Regardless of who is responsible for maintenance, it is important to maintain a record of each green infrastructure asset your program is responsible for, as well as operation and maintenance procedures to document long-term responsibilities and activities. The operation and maintenance plan should clearly define the maintenance processes, required equipment, and responsible department. It is also helpful to estimate the annual budget needed to perform the maintenance, so it can be incorporated into the annual operating budget of the department. Moreover, the public green infrastructure projects that are implemented should be tracked for effectiveness at reducing pollutant loads.
Personnel should be trained in green infrastructure maintenance practices. The Water Environment Federation operates the National Green Infrastructure Certification Program, which educates field personnel responsible for operation and maintenance of green infrastructure. Certifying maintenance personnel will ensure that your green infrastructure investment continues to function as designed over its intended lifespan.
Resources
| Article Description | Categories | categories_hfilter |
|---|---|---|
Watershed Management Optimization Support ToolAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: June 8, 2019 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/ceam/wmost The Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool is a software application that allows water resource managers and planners to screen a wide range of management practices for cost-effectiveness and economic sustainability. | Operations: Green Infrastructure | green-infrastructure |
Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management AssessmentsAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: June 5, 2018 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/water-research/visualizing-ecosystem-land-management-assessments-velma-model-20 Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management Assessments is a computer software model that regional planners and land managers can use to determine which green infrastructure practice would be most effective for improving water quality in streams, estuaries, and groundwater. | Operations: Green Infrastructure | green-infrastructure |
Urban Street Stormwater GuideAuthor: National Association of City Transportation Official | Developed/Updated on Date: June 2017 Web Link: https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-stormwater-guide/stormwater-streets/ The Urban Street Stormwater Guide provides cities with national best practices for sustainable stormwater management in the public right-of-way, including core principles about the purpose of streets, strategies for building inter-departmental partnerships around sustainable infrastructure, technical design details for siting and building bioretention facilities, and a visual language for communicating the benefits of such projects. The guide sheds light on effective policy and programmatic approaches to starting and scaling up green infrastructure, provides insight on innovative street design strategies, and proposes a framework for measuring performance of streets comprehensively. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Teach, Learn, Grow: The Value of Green Infrastructure in SchoolyardsAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: 2017 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/teach-learn-grow-value-green-infrastructure-schoolyards In this webcast, speakers from Green Schoolyards America, the Wichita State University Environmental Finance Center, and The Children & Nature Network discuss the multiple benefits of integrating green infrastructure practices into America’s schoolyards, and provide attendees with on-the-ground case studies and tools that can be used to create or enhance green schoolyard initiatives in their own communities. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
SUSTAIN—A Framework for Placement of Best Management Practices in Urban Watersheds to Protect Water QualityAuthor: U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development | Developed/Updated on Date: September 2009 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-10/documents/sustain_complex_tools.pdf The U.S. EPA has been working since 2003 to develop such a decision-support system. The resulting modeling framework is called the System for Urban Stormwater Treatment and Analysis INtegration (SUSTAIN). The development of SUSTAIN represents an intensive effort by EPA to create a tool for evaluating, selecting, and placing BMPs in an urban watershed on the basis of user-defined cost and effectiveness criteria. SUSTAIN provides a public domain tool capable of evaluating the optimal location, type, and cost of stormwater BMPs needed to meet water quality goals. It is a tool designed to provide critically needed support to watershed practitioners at all levels in developing stormwater management evaluations and cost optimizations to meet their existing program needs. Due to the complexity of the integrated framework for watershed analysis and planning, users are expected to have a practical understanding of watershed and BMP modeling processes, and calibration and validation techniques. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Water Quality Outcomes: Watershed-Based Models | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure watershed-based-models |
Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) Performance AnalysisAuthor: U.S. EPA Region 1 | Developed/Updated on Date: March 2010 Web Link: https://www3.epa.gov/region1/npdes/stormwater/assets/pdfs/BMP-Performance-Analysis-Report.pdf The purpose of this project is to generate long-term cumulative performance information for several types of stormwater best management practices (BMPs). The information can be used to provide estimates of long-term cumulative efficiencies for several types of BMPs, according to their sizing. The curves reflect pollutant removal performance of BMPs designed and maintained in accordance with Massachusetts stormwater standards. Developing a BMP rating curve involved several major steps: (1) selecting an appropriate long-term precipitation record (data and location) that is representative of a major urbanized area within the New England region, (2) generating hydrograph and pollutant time series using a land-based hydrologic and water quality model, (3) simulating BMP hydraulic and treatment processes in BMP models, and (4) creating BMP performance curves on the basis of BMP model simulation results. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Water Quality Outcomes: Watershed-Based Models | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure watershed-based-models |
Storm Water Management ModelAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: March 19, 2020 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/water-research/storm-water-management-model-swmm The Storm Water Management Model is a simulation model that communities can use for stormwater runoff reduction planning, analysis, and the design of combined sewers and other drainage systems. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Storm Smart Schools: A Guide to Integrate Green Stormwater Infrastructure to Meet Regulatory Compliance and Promote Environmental LiteracyAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: 2017 EPA Region III assisted Newport News Public Schools (NNPS) and the City of Newport News with organizing a community-based design charrette at Sedgefield Elementary School. The charrette resulted in the creation of a conceptual site plan that uses green infrastructure practices to address stormwater issues at Sedgefield Elementary. NNPS incorporated outdoor learning into this process, which provided an opportunity to support environmental literacy for students of all ages. This guide serves several purposes. It:
| Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Public Education and Outreach | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure public-education-and-outreach |
Storm Smart Cities: Integrating Green Infrastructure into Local Hazard Mitigation PlansAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: March 2018 This Storm Smart Cities guide examines how communities can integrate green infrastructure into their local hazard mitigation plans. It provides a case study of green infrastructure integration efforts in the City of Huntington, West Virginia, and the West Virginia Region 2 Planning & Development Area. This guide serves several purposes. It: | Funding: Establishing a Plan, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Public Participation | establishing-a-plan management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure public-participation |
Regional and Municipal Stormwater Management: A Comprehensive ApproachAuthor: Harvard Law School | Developed/Updated on Date: June 2014 This report analyzes options for addressing stormwater pollution at both the regional and municipal level. The report recommends that municipalities adopt green infrastructure as a stormwater pollution reduction strategy and provides exemplary code provisions that best encourage local green infrastructure development. The report also recommends that municipalities consider addressing stormwater pollution in a more comprehensive manner through participation in a regional program. Of the numerous options for regionalizing stormwater management, we recommend a hybrid approach that collects a fee for basic maintenance/installation costs and sets up a cap and trade system. The hybrid system combines the benefits of a cap and trade program with the funding sources of a fee program, helps to ensure the goal of decreased stormwater pollution in a comprehensive and cost-effective manner, and best deals with the differences in legal codes between municipalities. By accounting for differences in municipalities, a hybrid approach allows for growth by making it easier to add new municipalities and large property owners to the program. | Funding: Establishing a Plan, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | establishing-a-plan management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Prioritizing Wastewater and Stormwater Projects Using Stakeholder InputAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: August 2017 Many communities face complex challenges operating their wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, including meeting Clean Water Act (CWA) obligations under financial constraints. Communities with multiple CWA obligations for their wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), sewer systems, and stormwater infrastructure must prioritize their investments. In addition, they must evaluate different approaches and options for improving their systems, including gray, green, and data infrastructure investments. Integrated planning is the process of systematically identifying and prioritizing actions and projects to meet CWA obligations. EPA released the Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework to provide guidance on developing integrated plans. The framework identifies the operating principles and essential elements of an integrated plan. It also encourages communities to work with stakeholders to identify and evaluate options to respond to CWA requirements. This report describes how communities can use stakeholder input to select and rank criteria and apply those criteria to prioritize stormwater and wastewater projects. Three case studies illustrate this process. | Communication and Outreach: Engaging Stakeholders, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Program Goals and Management: Long-Term Planning, Public Education and Outreach, Public Participation | engaging-stakeholders green-infrastructure long-term-planning public-education-and-outreach public-participation |
Post-Construction Performance Standards & Water Quality-Based Requirements: A Compendium of Permitting ApproachesAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: June 2014 Web Link: https://www3.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/sw_ms4_compendium.pdf This compendium presents examples of different permitting approaches that EPA found in its nationwide review by describing, and in some cases excerpting, language from permits. The compendium is divided into two major sections. Section A provides examples of permits that implement numeric post-construction performance and/or design standards, and Section B presents different permitting approaches to address impaired waters and total maximum daily loads. Note that a number of the permits identified in the compendium are featured in more than one of the categories. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Planning for Sustainability: A Handbook for Water and Wastewater UtilitiesAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: February 2012 This Handbook describes a number of steps utilities can undertake to enhance their existing planning processes to ensure that water infrastructure investments are cost-effective over their life-cycle, resource-efficient, and support other relevant community goals. Developed after extensive consultation and input from utilities, states, and other stakeholders, this Handbook is organized around a series of Core Elements, including: | Operations: Green Infrastructure, Program Goals and Management: Long-Term Planning | green-infrastructure long-term-planning |
New Jersey Stormwater Best Management Practices ManualAuthor: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Watershed Management | Developed/Updated on Date: April 2004, Last Revised November 2018 Web Link: https://www.njstormwater.org/bmp_manual2.htm The New Jersey Stormwater Best Management Practices Manual (BMP manual) was developed to provide guidance to address the standards in the Stormwater Management Rules, N.J.A.C. 7:8 and provides examples of ways to meet the standards. The methods referenced in the BMP manual are one way of achieving the standards. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Program Goals and Management: Developing a Program, Program Goals and Management: Vision and Goals | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure developing-a-program vision-and-goals |
National Stormwater CalculatorAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: January 10, 2020 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/water-research/national-stormwater-calculator The National Stormwater Calculator (SWC) is a desktop application that estimates the annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runoff from a specific site anywhere in the United States (including Puerto Rico). SWC allows users to learn about the ways that green infrastructure practices, like rain gardens, can prevent water pollution in their neighborhoods. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure Municipal Handbook: Green StreetsAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: December 2008 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-10/documents/gi_munichandbook_green_streets_0.pdf Effective road drainage, translated as moving stormwater into the conveyance system quickly, has been a design priority while opportunities for enhanced environmental management have been overlooked, especially in the urban environment. Roads present many opportunities for green infrastructure application. One principle of green infrastructure involves reducing and treating stormwater close to its source. Urban transportation right-of-ways integrated with green techniques are often called “green streets.” Green streets achieve multiple benefits, such as improved water quality and more livable communities, through the integration of stormwater treatment techniques that use natural processes and landscaping. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Making the Right Choices for Your Utility: Using Sustainability Criteria for Water Infrastructure Decision MakingAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: February 2015 This document is designed to supplement the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Planning for Sustainability: A Handbook for Water and Wastewater Utilities (“the Handbook”), issued in February 2012. Specifically, this document supplements Element 3 in the Handbook (Alternatives Analysis) to provide more detailed guidance on alternatives analysis methods that utilities can use to incorporate sustainability criteria when evaluating infrastructure or operational alternatives and making decisions related to major infrastructure investments. It enables utilities of varying degrees of size and capacity, working with local officials and community members, to undertake a decision-making process that gives balanced consideration to a full range of alternatives—including green and decentralized technologies —to best meet the overall short- and long-term needs of the community. | Operations: Green Infrastructure, Program Goals and Management: Long-Term Planning | green-infrastructure long-term-planning |
International Stormwater BMP DatabaseAuthor: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: 2018 Web Link: http://www.bmpdatabase.org/ The International Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) Database project website features a database of over 700 BMP studies, performance analysis results, tools for use in BMP performance studies, monitoring guidance, and other study-related publications. | Operations: Green Infrastructure | green-infrastructure |
Harvesting the Value of Water: Stormwater, Green Infrastructure, and Real EstateAuthor: Urban Land Institute | Developed/Updated on Date: 2017 Web Link: https://uli.org/wp-content/uploads/ULI-Documents/HarvestingtheValueofWater.pdf This report seeks to address a gap in today’s research on stormwater management approaches. Although much has been written on the topic of green infrastructure and water management, most recent reports focus on stormwater policies or opportunities for capturing stormwater in the public realm. Fewer have focused on implications for private-sector real estate developers. This report brings together an analysis of the stormwater policy landscape and an introduction to a variety of real estate development projects that have responded to it. After outlining the reasons that stormwater management is important to cities, this report introduces a series of real estate case studies and a range of types of stormwater policies. The case studies come from locations across the United States and present both innovations in stormwater management and positive financial, operational, or design outcomes. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs green-infrastructure |
Greening the Streetscape: Complete Streets and Stormwater ManagementAuthor: Smart Growth America | Developed/Updated on Date: July 26, 2017 The challenge of managing stormwater is exacerbated by both increased rainfall and aging infrastructure. City governments, as well as residents who cannot afford to move, bear the brunt of the expense. Fortunately, stormwater management through Green Streets infrastructure offers promising solutions that can be carried out in conjunction with Complete Streets. When cities or private developers are retrofitting or redesigning streets, there is a confluence of opportunities to implement both stormwater improvement projects as well as Complete Streets network enhancements. Together, both Green Streets and Complete Streets initiatives work to improve the economic, equity, and environmental impacts of the street network all while creating safer, more vibrant streets. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Green Infrastructure WizardAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: July 9, 2019 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/sustainability/giwiz The Green Infrastructure Wizard is a web application that provides communities with information about EPA green infrastructure tools and resources. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
Green Infrastructure PlanAuthor: The Conservation Fund | Developed/Updated on Date: 2007 The Conservation Fund has completed a Green Infrastructure Plan for Cecil County, Maryland. Based on the approach outlined in Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities (Benedict and McMahon, 2006), the Fund undertook a series of tasks to help Cecil County identify and protect its critical green infrastructure. Using the Fund’s green infrastructure approach to strategic conservation, the plan includes four key products: | Funding: Establishing a Plan, Operations: Green Infrastructure | establishing-a-plan green-infrastructure |
Green Infrastructure Modeling ToolkitAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: October 23, 2018 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/water-research/green-infrastructure-modeling-toolkit EPA has developed innovative models, tools, and technologies for communities to manage water runoff in urban and other environments. The resources in this toolkit incorporate green or a combination of green and gray infrastructure practices to help communities manage their water resources in a more sustainable way, increasing resilience to future changes. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Program Goals and Management: Long-Term Planning | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure long-term-planning |
Green Infrastructure in Parks: A Guide to Collaboration, Funding, and Community EngagementAuthor: U.S. EPA Office of Water | Developed/Updated on Date: June 2017 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-05/documents/gi_parksplaybook_2017-05-01_508.pdf This guide offers information on why partnerships between stormwater managers and parks managers can be beneficial and how to create such partnerships. The guide presents an overview of green infrastructure, describes practices that can be used to manage stormwater in parks, and identifies factors that influence the selection of appropriate green infrastructure practices. It includes recommendations on the types of projects that are most likely to attract positive attention, funding, and the widest range of benefits. The guide is designed to provide you with a stepwise approach for building relationships with potential partners and includes information on how to identify and engage partners, build relationships, involve the community, leverage funding opportunities, and identify green infrastructure opportunities. Case studies are included to illustrate the approaches. For those who wish to go deeper into a topic, the guide includes short descriptions and links to external resources that provide more detail on the material presented within. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Program Goals and Management: Long-Term Planning | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure long-term-planning |
Green Infrastructure Flexible ModelAuthor: GIFMod (Green Infrastructure Flexible Model) | Developed/Updated on Date: June 7, 2016 Web Link: https://gifmod.com/default/ The Green Infrastructure Flexible Model is a computer program that evaluates the performance of urban stormwater and agricultural green infrastructure practices. Users can build conceptual models of green infrastructure practices to predict hydraulic and water quality performance under given weather scenarios. | Operations: Green Infrastructure | green-infrastructure |
Green Infrastructure Case StudiesAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: August 2010 Web Link: https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/P100FTEM.PDF?Dockey=P100FTEM.PDF This report presents the common trends in how 12 local governments developed and implemented stormwater policies to support green infrastructure. The local policies examined in this paper include interagency cooperation, enforcement and management issues, and integration with state and federal regulations. While a strong motivation for these policies and programs is innovation in stormwater management, many communities are moving past the era of single objective spending and investing in runoff reduction and stormwater management strategies that have multiple benefits. Green infrastructure approaches have a range of benefits for the social, environmental, and economic conditions of a community. Not only do these case studies include success stories for building a comprehensive green infrastructure program, but they also provide insight into the barriers and failures these communities experienced while trying to create a stormwater management system that includes more green infrastructure approaches. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
EPA Pilot Project to Increase Use of Green Infrastructure from Documenting Collaborative AgreementAuthor: U.S. Government Accountability Office | Developed/Updated on Date: September 2017 Web Link: https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/687478.pdf Urban stormwater runoff is a major contributor to pollution in U.S. waters. Municipalities historically managed stormwater with gray infrastructure. In 2007, EPA began encouraging the use of green infrastructure to manage stormwater and reduce the need for gray infrastructure. The Government Accountability Office was asked to examine the use of green infrastructure by municipalities to meet EPA’s stormwater requirements. This report (1) describes the extent to which selected municipalities are incorporating and funding green infrastructure in stormwater management efforts; (2) describes what challenges, if any, municipalities reported facing in incorporating green infrastructure into stormwater management efforts; and (3) examines efforts EPA is making to help municipalities use green infrastructure. The Government Accountability Office surveyed two nongeneralizable samples totaling 31 municipalities with stormwater permits or consent decrees for combined sewer overflows and interviewed EPA officials to examine EPA efforts to help municipalities use green infrastructure. The municipalities were randomly selected from lists of municipalities that are required to have permits and have consent decrees. | Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure, Public Education and Outreach | management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure public-education-and-outreach |
Costs and Effectiveness of Stormwater Management PracticesAuthor: Peter T. Weiss, John S. Gulliver, Andrew J. Erickson | Developed/Updated on Date: June 2005 Web Link: https://www.lrrb.org/pdf/200523.pdf The authors present construction and annual operating and maintenance cost data for several common stormwater management practices, including dry detention basins, wet basins, sand filters, constructed wetlands, bioretention filters, infiltration trenches, and swales. After statistical analysis of historical values of inflation and bond yields, the annual operating and maintenance costs were converted to a present worth based on a 20-year life and added to the construction cost. The total present cost of each stormwater control was reported as a function of water quality effectiveness (removal of total suspended solids and phosphorus). This work can be used by communities to estimate both the total cost of installing a stormwater management practice at a given site and the corresponding total suspended solids and phosphorus removal. | Funding: Program Costs, Operations: Green Infrastructure | program-costs green-infrastructure |
Community-enabled Lifecycle Analysis of Stormwater Infrastructure Costs (CLASIC)Author: Water Environment & Reuse Foundation | Developed/Updated on Date: Under development The Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF) is developing a lifecycle cost tool for communities that takes into account the costs associated with planning, designing, acquiring, constructing, operating, maintaining, renewing, and replacing stormwater infrastructure. The results are expected to increase confidence in comparing benefits and costs of stormwater infrastructure alternatives using tools based on cost, design, and performance data sets and a peer-reviewed model. It will be a publicly accessible tool and database and a guide for decision-makers that includes case studies. | Funding: Program Costs, Operations: Asset Management, Operations: Green Infrastructure | program-costs asset-management green-infrastructure |
City Parks, Clean Water: Making Great Places Using Green InfrastructureAuthor: Trust for Public Land | Developed/Updated on Date: 2016 Web Link: https://www.tpl.org/sites/default/files/City%20Parks%20Clean%20Water%20report_0.pdf This study shines a light on the successes and challenges of water-smart parks, looking at both the technologies and the political issues involved in using green infrastructure to make our cities more desirable, more livable, and more successful. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |
City Green: Innovative Green Infrastructure Solutions for Downtown and Infill LocationsAuthor: U.S. EPA | Developed/Updated on Date: 2016 Web Link: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-06/documents/city_green_0.pdf This publication is for local governments, private developers, and other stakeholders who help shape redevelopment projects in downtowns and infill locations where development has already occurred. It provides inspiration and helps identify successful strategies and lessons learned for overcoming common barriers to using green infrastructure in these contexts. The examples could encourage cities to adopt policies that would expand the number of projects incorporating similar green infrastructure approaches. Twelve case studies showcase projects from around the country that have overcome many common challenges to green infrastructure at sites surrounded by existing development and infrastructure. In these cases, space is at a premium, and soil conditions are often unknown or unsuitable for infiltration. The case studies help identify successful strategies and lessons learned for overcoming common problems. | Funding: Integrating with Other Programs, Management of Post-Construction Site Runoff, Operations: Green Infrastructure | integrating-with-other-programs management-of-post-construction-site-runoff green-infrastructure |