Green Infrastructure: Session Introduction

  Glenn Coyne
  Session: Author Info 

Introduction

The topic of this session was the framework for and examples of an exciting new initiative — Green Infrastructure. This initiative emerged from the work of the President’s Council for Sustainable Development, and specifically at the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America in May 1999. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through the U.S. Forest Service, agreed to organize and help support the design of a Green Infrastructure training program in collaboration with a wide range of partners. These partners include an impressive list of organizations. Participants in work sessions and teams have included: The USDA Forest Service, (serving as convener/facilitator), The Conservation Fund, The International City/County management Association (ICMA), The American Planning Association (APA), State of Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD/DNR), Northern Virginia Planning District Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — National Conservation Training Center (FWS/NCTC), U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service (NPS), The Federal Highway Administration (DOT/FHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Urban Land Institute (ULI), Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA), The Wilderness Society (TWS), and The Pinchot Institute for Conservation.

Purpose

Develop a training program to help communities and their partners make green infrastructure an inseparable part of federal, state, and local government plans, policies, and practices and community decisions.

Working Definition

Green Infrastructure is our Nation’s natural life support system — an interconnected network of waterways, wetlands, woodlands, wildlife habitats, and other natural areas; greenways, parks and other conservation lands; working farms, ranches, and forests; and wilderness and other open spaces that support native species, maintain natural ecological processes, sustain air and water resources and contribute to the health and quality of life for America’s communities and people.

Interest to Planners

Most planners can identify with components of gray infrastructure such as the transportation system, water and sewerage treatment facilities and other utilities. The point of our efforts is to tell the story and encourage growing communities that just as they need to expand and upgrade their gray infrastructure, so too, they need to upgrade and expand their Green Infrastructure.

Where do we go from here?

Actions. Over the next year, participants volunteered to:

  1. Develop a Green Infrastructure Resource Guide
  2. Design, pilot, and deliver an introductory Green Infrastructure course (GI 101)
  3. Define and articulate the green infrastructure concept
  4. Document green infrastructure case studies
  5. Disseminate green infrastructure information through conferences, forums, and print media…

Conferences:

  1. APA Conference in New York City - Green Infrastructure Session, April 19
  2. Mid-Atlantic Land Trust Conference at NCTC — GIS techniques for mapping green infrastructure, May 19-20, 2000
  3. ASPRS Conference in Washington, DC — Green Infrastructure Design using GIS, May 25
  4. National Rural Development Partnership Annual Meeting in Sheridan, Wyoming (proposed) — August 23-25, 2000
  5. National Land Trust Rally in Portland, OR — September 2000

Introduction of Three Speakers

Glenn Eugster is an Assistant Regional Director with the National Park Service’s National Capital Region. Prior to returning to NPS this year, Glenn worked in the EPA Office of the Administrator, Chesapeake Bay Program and Regional Geographic Initiative. In 1998 he represented EPA on the President’s Council for Sustainable Development Task Force for Metropolitan and Rural Strategies. He is trained as an ecological planner and landscape architect.

Dr. Tim Beatley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia. His main teaching and research interests are environmental planning, sustainable communities, habitat conservation planning, environmental values and ethics. Dr. Beatley holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Island Press published his book, Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities in 2000.

Dr. Mark A. Benedict is with The Conservation Fund where he serves as Director of the Conservation Leadership Network and Liaison to the National Conservation Training Center. His past affiliations include: Associate Scientist, Department of landscape Architecture, University of Florida; Director, Florida Greenways Program of 1000 Friends of Florida and The Conservation Fund; Executive Director, The Florida Greenways Commission; and Environmental Protection Director, The Conservancy, Inc. Dr. Benedict received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Botany/Plant Ecology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and his B.S. in Zoology at Duke University.


Author and Copyright Information

Copyright 2000 By Author

Glenn Coyne American Planning Association