Many of us go to parks, gardens and public places to sit, enjoy time with friends and explore recreation in the green areas. We do these activities but don’t ask why do these places exist? Are they useful? Are there disadvantages to them? In this article, we will explore green infrastructure.
What is Green Infrastructure?
Green Infrastructure is a group of engineering and landscape design techniques used to improve stormwater management and urban green space by combining nature and built elements.
Green Infrastructure is also called blue-green infrastructure, it can be found in the waterways, trees, streets, and public squares. It is called infrastructure because these features are part of the built environment and have utilitarian purposes for human society.
The main elements of this approach include managing stormwater and hurricanes, adapting to climate and its changes, facing global warming, increasing biodiversity, increasing food production, trying to improve air quality, producing sustainable energy, obtaining clean and healthy water and suitable soil for agriculture.
In addition to that, it seeks to achieve more important goals such as increasing the quality of life by increasing well-being and providing basic needs in and around cities and villages.
Green Infrastructure also provides an environmental framework for social, economic, and environmental health, green infrastructure can be considered a subset of sustainable and resilient infrastructure projects.
If you need extra information, you can get environmental consulting by going to an expert or some websites on the internet, CYPRESS may help you out finding what you looking for.
Green Infrastructure and the water (H2)
The proximity to water sources and the attempt to obtain them has been one of the most important factors in human settlement throughout history because water and the surrounding green spaces create possibilities for transportation, trade, energy generation, and providing humans with the resources for life and well-being.
Many of the world’s largest and most densely populated cities are located near water sources. Networks of urban green infrastructure such as canals, ports have been established in these cities to take advantage of the water as much as possible and reduce the risks resulting from it.
Increasing pressure, population density, and rapid urbanization have resulted in the disappearance of a not bad portion of the water infrastructure in most cities. The population of coastal areas is increasing in urban areas, and cities are witnessing a large-scale transformation in the manufacture and construction of water canals, rivers, docks… after the changes that have occurred in the patterns of global trade.
What are the types of Green Infrastructure?
Urban forests
A forest or group of trees that grow within a city or town or in the suburbs, and its precise meaning is that any type of tree plant grown within or around human settlements, the process of caring and managing these forests is called urban forestry; These forests may be public subordinate to the city and they may be outside the town or city they belong to.
Green and blue roofs
A surface covering the roof of the building partially or completely with plants, soil, or crops. They are grown above a waterproof membrane. This may also include additional layers such as drainage and irrigation systems.
The roofs on which there are potted plants are not generally considered to be a green roof. One of the oldest American roofs in history is the top of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, built-in 1936. This project was aimed at the welfare of the center’s workers, and it has remained to this day.
Constructed wetland
A constructed wetland with water flow that aims to simulate the processes that occur naturally in a natural wetland or swamp.
When water flows slowly through wetlands, particles are deposited, pathogens are destroyed, and nutrients are consumed by organisms and plants. This type of established wetland is usually used as an advanced treatment stage after secondary or tertiary treatment processes.
Bioswales
In urban areas, mulched or vegetated channels are designed for stormwater and are usually placed in narrow long spaces. These features act as an alternative to the traditional storm sewers and they carry the flow of heavy rains to sewers or directly to surface water.
Rain gardens
Rain gardens are one of a variety of applications designed to treat polluted rainwater runoff. Rain gardens are a low-lying area designed to store runoff from urban areas at risks, such as rooftops, subway walkways, and parking lanes.
Rain gardens usually rely on plants and engineered soil media to dilute rainwater when they absorb and purify the pollutants transported in urban wastewater runoff.
What are the benefits of Green Infrastructure? (H2)
Green spaces with high performance can provide an economic, environmental, and social benefit, including:
- Forests within the urban environment contribute to managing stormwater runoff as well as reducing energy costs.
- High-performance green spaces create a balance between natural and urban environments.
- The increased availability of green spaces in cities and urban communities contributes to increasing rates of physical activity.
- In cities, green spaces around homes are associated with better mental health.