Green Infrastructure - Can it Work for You?
By Evelyn Alemanni
Many older cities across the US are coming to the realization that their infrastructure is aging, and repairs and replacements will be more costly than their tax base can handle. Faced with the urgent need to do something, some cash-strapped cities are turning to green infrastructure. Small, easily implemented projects like rain gardens and bioswales can add years to the life of water treatment plants.
An article in the November 11, 2010 issue of The Economist cites plans by New York city to use green infrastructure to address water treatment. (Read the entire article at http://www.economist.com/node/17468409?story_id=17468409&fsrc=rss.)
"New York recently unveiled a grand plan to clean up its waterways. Instead of spending billions on new tanks and pipes (i.e., “grey infrastructure”), which take years to build and never quite address the problem, the city intends to invest in “green infrastructure”, such as roofs covered with vegetation, porous pavements and kerbside gardens. The scheme involves a fundamental shift in approach: instead of treating rainfall as waste to be whisked away as quickly as possible, New York will let it sink usefully into the ground: thereby helping to make the city greener, improve air quality, raise property values, increase jobs and lower water and energy costs, according to studies by the EPA and others.
This is no unfunded pipe-dream. The city is already required to spend $6.8 billion over 20 years to meet harbour-quality standards. The greener plan would cost government a third less, with $2.9 billion for tunnels and tanks and $1.5 billion for green innovations. New buildings would also have to meet run-off regulations.
This is a way of achieving more than one thing with tax dollars, says Carter Strickland, a deputy commissioner in New York’s Department of Environmental Protection. Unlike a sewage works or a new pipeline, which take years to build and which no one wants nearby, green infrastructure projects offer benefits the moment the first tree is planted or a rain barrel is installed. “Isn’t it nice?” observes Mr Strickland as he shows off one of the city’s 30 pilot projects, a little roadside garden deep in Brooklyn, with a tree and some flowers. It is indeed, and it can capture nearly 1,000 gallons of storm-water that would otherwise pour into a nearby drain."
Many older cities across the US are coming to the realization that their infrastructure is aging, and repairs and replacements will be more costly than their tax base can handle. Faced with the urgent need to do something, some cash-strapped cities are turning to green infrastructure. Small, easily implemented projects like rain gardens and bioswales can add years to the life of water treatment plants.
An article in the November 11, 2010 issue of The Economist cites plans by New York city to use green infrastructure to address water treatment. (Read the entire article at http://www.economist.com/node/17468409?story_id=17468409&fsrc=rss.)
"New York recently unveiled a grand plan to clean up its waterways. Instead of spending billions on new tanks and pipes (i.e., “grey infrastructure”), which take years to build and never quite address the problem, the city intends to invest in “green infrastructure”, such as roofs covered with vegetation, porous pavements and kerbside gardens. The scheme involves a fundamental shift in approach: instead of treating rainfall as waste to be whisked away as quickly as possible, New York will let it sink usefully into the ground: thereby helping to make the city greener, improve air quality, raise property values, increase jobs and lower water and energy costs, according to studies by the EPA and others.
This is no unfunded pipe-dream. The city is already required to spend $6.8 billion over 20 years to meet harbour-quality standards. The greener plan would cost government a third less, with $2.9 billion for tunnels and tanks and $1.5 billion for green innovations. New buildings would also have to meet run-off regulations.
This is a way of achieving more than one thing with tax dollars, says Carter Strickland, a deputy commissioner in New York’s Department of Environmental Protection. Unlike a sewage works or a new pipeline, which take years to build and which no one wants nearby, green infrastructure projects offer benefits the moment the first tree is planted or a rain barrel is installed. “Isn’t it nice?” observes Mr Strickland as he shows off one of the city’s 30 pilot projects, a little roadside garden deep in Brooklyn, with a tree and some flowers. It is indeed, and it can capture nearly 1,000 gallons of storm-water that would otherwise pour into a nearby drain."
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