Late last year, NRPA and the American Planning Association (APA) kicked off an expansion of their collaborative Great Urban Parks Campaign in an effort to explore the social and environmental benefits of green infrastructure projects in parks in underserved communities.
What Is Green Infrastructure?
The basic purpose of green infrastructure is to capture rain or stormwater and allow it to gradually seep into the ground or return to natural creeks or river systems. This is in contrast to traditional “grey” infrastructure, which functions to remove stormwater as quickly as possible into gutters, storm drains, sewers or other constructed channels, often carrying with it sediment, oil, trash and other pollutants from roads and sidewalks before it is released into waterways. Some examples of green infrastructure that can be found in a park and recreation setting include rain gardens, permeable pavement, green roofs, native plantings along streambanks and constructed or restored wetlands.
Green infrastructure provides a solution to many of the challenges of grey infrastructure. By slowing the flow of stormwater, green infrastructure reduces pollution due to stormwater runoff that can carry pollutants into local waterways. Using plants, green infrastructure taps into natural processes to filter and clean the water before it seeps into the ground or slowly flows into creeks or rivers. And by reducing the flow of stormwater into sewer pipes during heavy rainfall, green infrastructure can serve to reduce incidences of combined sewer overflow.
In addition to these important environmental benefits, green infrastructure is beautiful, increases wildlife habitat and can provide opportunities for environmental education and outdoor recreation. These are the so-called “co-benefits” of green infrastructure, perhaps, that most interest those involved in the designing or re-designing of parks. Add to that an opportunity to actively engage the community in the process of designing and implementing green infrastructure projects and the benefits will multiply.
As with many environmental challenges, the problems of poorly managed stormwater — flooding, combined sewer overflows and others — often disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color. The application of green infrastructure can help alleviate these environmental hazards while engaging the community and increasing access to nature and green space.
During the next two years, NRPA and APA aim to equip and support park leaders and planners to collaborate and advance the implementation of green infrastructure in parks for the multiple benefits to communities and the environment.
A Gathering of Thought Leaders
As a first step in this effort, last month NRPA hosted a convening of experts and thought leaders to help us frame the challenge and delve deep into the “how” and “why” of green infrastructure in parks in underserved communities. We found an ideal location for this gathering in Atlanta, Georgia — a city that has embraced green infrastructure in its parks and public spaces, particularly in traditionally under-resourced neighborhoods.
We were joined by colleagues from the Trust for Public Land and The Conservation Fund to help us understand initiatives at the national level and how this translates into work on the ground. Representatives from Amigos de los Rios in Los Angeles and the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance shared their recipes for success in engaging people from low-income and immigrant communities and people of color in the process of implementing green infrastructure in parks and public spaces.
We engaged in rousing dialogue and working groups with experts representing a range of perspectives — leaders in the fields of planning, environmental justice and social equity, conservation funding, water management, park design and many others. Topics of discussion ranged from community engagement and financing for green infrastructure to partnerships, operations and maintenance. We heard from representatives from Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Milwaukee — cities leading the effort to place green infrastructure in parks — about their achievements and how they got there.
We were fortunate to have a beautiful spring day for an afternoon tour of Atlanta parks that exemplify what we aim to achieve through the Great Urban Parks Campaign. We visited the future site of Proctor Park, currently a neglected, trash-filled space in the Bankhead neighborhood that regularly floods as runoff from nearby downtown Atlanta is released from underground pipes. The new space will offer the community in Atlanta’s west side opportunities for recreation and a place to connect with nature alongside 4 acres of constructed wetlands that will manage the stormwater. Lindsay Street Park, the first park in the English Avenue neighborhood, boasts more than 30 organizational partners that contributed to this shining example of community engagement to address a critical neighborhood-scale flooding and combined sewer overflow problem. Lindsay Street features rain gardens and other green infrastructure to manage stormwater and control flooding. We drove by Mims Park and Vine City Park — two other examples of parks in underserved areas of West Atlanta that will benefit from green infrastructure while providing community members access to green space and recreation.
Our tour concluded at Atlanta’s Historic Fourth Ward Park — an award-winning example of the opportunity green infrastructure presents to transform a neighborhood. Located in a former industrial area known for its vulnerability to flooding and debris strewn by stormwater runoff, the 17-acre Historic Fourth Ward Park now offers playgrounds, a skatepark, an outdoor theater, athletic fields and plenty of open green space. The centerpiece of the park — a 2-acre lake — functions to hold stormwater in place, reducing the burden on the city’s grey stormwater infrastructure, minimizing flooding and providing wildlife habitat. The stormwater management features of Historic Fourth Ward Park are not only beautiful and functional — they also save the city money. The cost savings total roughly $15 million as compared with construction of grey infrastructure to manage the same amount of water.
What’s Next
This convening of experts helped to frame the conversation about how park leaders and planners can best advance green infrastructure projects in parks in underserved communities. During the next 18 months, NRPA and APA will roll out a series of educational tools and resources for our members on topics such as making the case to elected officials for green infrastructure in parks, strategies for funding green infrastructure projects, and best practices for engaging the community in the process. These tools will include a comprehensive resource guide, available for free online, and a series of training webinars and conference presentations.
Meanwhile, we will continue to learn from and support the field by providing three to five grants ranging from $350,000 to $575,000 to support replicable green infrastructure pilot projects in local parks in underserved communities and demonstrate how such projects can positively influence social and environmental outcomes. We anticipate funding projects such as constructing rain gardens with educational signage, inviting the public to learn about the role of plants in mitigating stormwater runoff or improving the installation of a green roof on a recreation center, complete with a gathering space where the public can enjoy the view and learn about the role of green roofs in cooling buildings and holding and filtering stormwater.
Learn more about green infrastructure resources.
Jessica Culverhouse is NRPA’s Senior Manager of Fundraising.