Green infrastructure Design is a cost-effective, resilient approach to managing wet weather impacts that provide many community benefits.
While gray stormwater infrastructure is designed to move urban stormwater, green infrastructure design reduces and treats stormwater at its source while delivering environmental, social, and economic benefits. Stormwater runoff is a major cause of pollution in urban areas. When rain falls on our roofs, streets, and parking lots the water cannot soak into the ground as it should.
The stormwater runoff carries trash, bacteria, heavy metals, and other pollutants from the urban landscape. Higher flows resulting from heavy rains also can cause erosion and flooding in urban streams, damaging habitat, property, and infrastructure. When rain falls in natural, undeveloped areas, the water is absorbed and filtered by soil and plants. Stormwater runoff is cleaner and less of a problem.
Green infrastructure Design uses vegetation, soils, and other elements and practices to restore some of the natural processes required to manage water and create healthier urban environments. At the city or county scale, green infrastructure is a patchwork of natural areas that provides habitat, flood protection, cleaner air, and cleaner water. At the neighborhood or site scale, stormwater management systems that mimic nature soak up and store water.