GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE REMARKS

GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

RETURNED TO EPA--HQ IN 1996 TO WORK ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT & REGIONAL GEOGRAPHIC INITATIVES POLICIES.

1. SUSTAINABILITY EQUATION

SDCG Program: Sustainability?

Meet multiple objectives simultaneously—an equation.

Issues:  Development process/ natural resources residual

Healthful/ healthy communities require a healthy relationship between people and environment (human ecology is the approach we use to understand the relationship)

PCSD:  Metropolitan and Rural Strategies Task Force; Green Infrastructure Approach.  

Evolved from Chesapeake Bay Program Priorities for Land, Growth & Stewardship 

and Metropolitan Ecosystems Action Strategy in EPA—Swati Sheladia research.

1. THE ENVIRONMENTAL LEG

Within a sustainability context, what are the environmental values and functions?  

SMART GROWTH BEGINS TO LOOK AT HOW WE USE EXISTING DEVELOPMENT INFRASTRUCTURE—DENSITIES AND BROWNFIELDS; IT SUGGESTS NEW WAYS TO PLACE DEVELOPMENT ON THE LANDSCAPE AND IN MANY WAYS IT CAN HELP ACHIEVE MORE “INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE DECISIONS.

HOWEVER, THE JURY IS STILL OUT TO SEE IF WE AS A NATION SHIFT AWAY FROM DEVELOPMENT POLICIES THAT LINK LARGE SCALE INFRASTRUCTURE AS A PRECONDITION AND MOTOR FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.  UNFORTUNATELY THIS EMPHAISIS ON MAN-MADE OR MATERIAL INFRASTRUCTURE OFTEN LARGELY IGNORES HUMAN CAPITAL AND NATURAL VALUES AND FUNCTIONS.

MY REMARKS WILL FOCUS ON NATURAL VALUES AND FUNCTIONS AS PART OF THE SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE.

MANY MAN-MADE/ HUMAN SERVICES CAN BE PROVIDED BY NATURAL PROCESSES FOR FREE AND THESE SERVICES CAN BE SUSTAINABLE.  Values and functions: Physical, biological, natural AND social/ HUMAN (psychological/ sacred).  WATER QUANTITY AND QUALITY; FLOOD-LOSS REDUCTION; FOOD; FIBER; HABITAT FOR ALL LIVING RESOURCES; AIR QUALITY AND QUANTITY, AND RECREATION; LEISURE AND HEALTH CARE.    

How does the environmental piece get integrated into the sustainability equation?  Current approach often “Tyranny of Small Solutions” and natural resources which are taken out of a landscape or ecological context.

“Other Infrastructure” Idea.  

FIRST ANNE PEARSONS NEWSLETTER; INTERNATIONAL WORK; FLORIDA AND MD.    

Systems approach to determine what is important; essential; absolutely necessary for a healthful/ healthy community.  

Dwight D. Eisenhower had something when he looked at the Nation’s road system and said we need a system of interstate highways!

SO WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?  Green Lunacy you say?  A return to the wetlands delineation manual?  SOMETHING WE ALREADY DO WITH GREENWAYS AND OPEN SPACE PLANNING?  A disciple of Ian McHarg and a believer of environmental determinism? 

1. EXAMPLES

The answers are on the ground and in the work of landowners; developers; local government officials; land trusts; and State governments.

Let’s look closer:

1. Private Landowners Master Planning:  Natural Lands Trust Work

1. Individual property owner—Andy Johnson; Private Landowner Master Plans
2. Cluster of property owners—Fortescue Glades, NJ
3. Subdivision process—Randal Arendt and PA Growing Greener

2.  Planned Unit Developments:  Woodlands Development Corporation, Texas

1.   Small to Medium Size Cities:  

1.   West Eugene Wetlands Plan, Oregon 
2.   Eckernforde Landscape Plan, Eckernforde, Germany

4.  Watershed Strategies:

1. Charles River Non-Structural Flood Loss Reduction Strategy, Charles River Watershed Association and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,  Boston, Massachusetts
2. Lower Potomac Watershed: Building Green Infrastructure, Trust for Public Land, Virginia and Maryland
3. Catskill Mountain-New York City Water Supply Protection Strategy, New York
4. Nine-Mile Run Greenway, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

5.  Metropolitan Regions:

1. Toronto Portlands; Toronto Waterfront Regeneration Trust, Toronto, Canada
2. Stuttgart Clean Air Flow Zones, Verband Region, Stuttgart, Germany
3. Emscher Park Region, Kommunalverband Ruhrgebiet, 

    Rhur Valley, Essen, Germany

6.  States:

1. Florida Greenways Plan; Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, Florida
2. Maryland Natural Infrastructure; Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Annapolis, Maryland

1. CLOSING

THE VISION OF SUSTAINABLE OR LIVEABLE COMMUNITIES OFFERS GREAT PROMISE FOR ACHIEVING PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY.  UNFORTUNATELY, SLOGANS AND BOTIQUE FEDERAL AND STATE INITIATIVES CAN BE MORE TALK THAN ACTION.  

THIS DIRECTION CAN CHALLENGE US TO LOOK AT THE WAY WE USE AND MANAGE THE LAND, AIR AND WATER; HOW WE RELATE TO OUR LANDSCAPES/ COMMUNITIES; AND HOW WE MIGHT PLAN FOR THE FUTURE.

THERE IS A NEW GENERATION OF LEADERSHIP WHO ARE EMBRACING THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY AND LOOKING TO US AND INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES FOR INSIGHTS, IDEAS AND INSPIRATION.  

MAY YOU HAVE CONTINUED SUCCESS IN YOUR WORK.

1. For further Information:  

SOURCES:

GREEN URBANISM—LEARNING FROM EUROPEAN CITIES

BIOREGIONALSIM AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN PLANNING

GREENING THE NORTH

GREENING OF CITIES

THE GRANITE GARDEN

BRITISH TOWN PLANNING & URBAN DESIGN