Valuing Green Infrastructure

23 03 2011


Earlier this year the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) released the publication “ The Value of Green Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing Its Economic, Environmental and Social Benefits”. The publication is a great summary of the benefits of Green Infrastructure and goes a step further by providing data to help communities quantify many of its benefits.

The document includes two example demonstration projects. The first is for a green roof project on a single site and the other seeks to illustrate the benefits of the green roof site if expanded to a neighborhood scale. The authors point out that full life-cycle analysis was not a part of the scope of the analysis included in these demonstrations.

In addition, they offer a series of considerations and limitations of the data included. These points are helpful to consider when applying the information within the report. These include considering the full life-cycle analysis, local performance and level of benefits realized, spatial scaling and thresholds, temporal considerations and scale discounting, operation and maintenance, price variability, and double counting.

The concept of “discounting” described in the report was interesting. It recognizes that society typically values present benefits over future benefits. The following is an excerpt describing this concept:

“The term “discounting” refers to the adjustment one makes to account for future uncertainty (or the opportunity cost of money: a dollar today is not worth the same as a dollar five years down the road). Our society generally values what an investment gives us in the present more than what we might get for it in the future. The reason for this is future uncertainty, and as such, the future value or benefit of an investment must be adjusted or discounted. It is a technique widely used in benefit-cost analyses to understand and compare a project’s implications (its rate of return) over a given temporal scale.”

Overall the report is a helpful resource in quantifying the benefits of green infrastructure. The additional external links and resources provide additional tools and are worth exploring. You can find the full report on CNT’s website.

-Brian Phelps


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Categories : Bioretention, Green roof, Pervious Pavement, Sustainable Site Strategies

Philadelphia Green Infrastructure Video

7 09 2010

I recently came across this video covering Philadelphia’s Green Infrastructure Efforts. It was created by GreenTreks, an award-winning Philadelphia-based non profit communications organization dedicated to educating people about the interconnectedness of environmental, societal, economic, and individual health. For more information and links to other resources on Philadelphia’s triple bottom line green infrastructure strategy  see our past post  Triple Bottom Line of Green Infrastructure.

–Brian Phelps


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Metro Green Infrastructure Master Plan Now On-line

1 09 2010

Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County’s Green Infrastructure Master Plan is now available on Metro Water Services’ website. The plan was prepared by amec, Hawkins Partners, Urban Blueprint, and the Low Impact Development Center. The plan includes the following:

  • Green Infrastructure Practice – Overview of Green Infrastructure and descriptions of various practices.
  • Technical Analysis of Green Infrastructure – Analysis of the CSS area with respect to green roofs, three kinds of infiltration practices, tree planting, and rainfall harvesting (cisterns and rain barrels) and its potential impacts on the CSS.
  • Green Infrastructure Projects – Brief overview of the preliminary design concepts for six projects.
  • Green Infrastructure Incentives and Financing – Summary of various potentially applicable incentive practices that have been applied in other cities to encourage the use of Green Infrastructure.

Click here to download the entire plan in PDF format


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Categories : Bioretention, Green roof, Green Street, Hawkins Partners, Pervious Pavement, Plans and studies, Sustainable Site Strategies, Water Harvesting

Zoning and Pervious Pavement

19 03 2010

This month, the topic of APA’s Planning Advisory Service’s column, “You Asked, We Answered”, is how zoning codes across the country are handling pervious pavement for parking and sidewalks. The links to the various zoning codes were very useful. The following are excerpts from some of the more interesting ones.

ASHEVILLE, NC

“Porous paving blocks and pervious paving materials are permitted and encouraged as material for parking lots. The use of grass as a parking lot surface is permitted for overflow and intermittent parking. Pervious paving systems are required for parking spaces which exceed the maximum number of spaces required by subsection 7-11-2(c). The use of grass or other vegetation as a parking surface is permitted only for parking spaces which are provided in excess of the maximum number of parking spaces required by subsection 7-11-2(c) or used for intermittent or overflow parking. Parking lots associated with arenas, sporting facilities, amphitheaters, fairgrounds, and religious institutions may, however, use grass or other vegetation for the entire parking lot.”

DOUGLAS COUNTY, MN

Impervious Surface Replacement. Existing properties exceeding the standards for impervious surface coverage present a distinct management challenge from that of newly developed properties and there is a need to establish clear and consistent guidelines for how re-development of these lots may occur.

1. The applicant removes existing impervious surfaces at a ratio of one and one-half (1.5) square feet removed for every one (1) square foot added and restores these areas to a permeable surface…

…a. Permeable pavement systems are encouraged in the management of sites currently over the impervious surface limit and shall be credited as twenty-five (25) percent pervious for these sites when installed according to the requirements of

Section V.L.4.a.(2.)(d.)iii. Applicants are encouraged to replace existing impervious surfaces with natural vegetation at the 1.5 to 1 ratio listed above, however, permeable pavement systems may also be used. In these cases they are to replace existing impervious surfaces at a ratio of at least four (4) square feet converted for every one (1) square foot of new impervious surface being added;

2. The applicant removes existing impervious surfaces at a 1:1 ratio and restores those areas to a permeable surface and in addition, submits a comprehensive stormwater management plan that emphasized infiltration and onsite retention of stormwater for at least the two year 24-hour storm event through a combination of methods including buffer strips, swales, rainwater gardens, permeable pavement systems and other low impact development methods. The stormwater management plan must be designed by a registered engineer or landscape architect and installed as designed by a qualified professional.

a. Permeable pavement systems may be considered as 100% pervious when submitted as part of a stormwater management plan consistent with this section…

FT. WAYNE, IN

If construction techniques such as pervious pavement, block and concrete modular pavers, and grid pavers are used for off-street parking surfaces, each space provided as a result may serve in lieu of two (2) required off-street parking spaces, up to a maximum of 10% of the number of required spaces…

…Paving and drainage. All land which is placed in use for off-street parking and all driveways serving parking, delivery, and loading areas, shall be paved with asphalt, concrete, or other approved all-weather hard surface, including construction techniques such as pervious pavement; block, concrete, and similar modular pavers, and grid pavers; and shall be drained with materials and in a manner which meets the current minimum standards and specifications for parking areas adopted by the Board.

-Brian Phelps



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Kansas City Stormwater Overflow Control Plan

4 12 2009

Source: Kansas City, Missouri Overflow Control Plan Overview Document

This year Kansas City embarked on a massive $2.3 billion stormwater overflow control plan to address sewer overflows throughout the city. Its inclusion of a major $28 million green infrastructure pilot project has gained a lot of attention. The project has been recognized as the largest green infrastructure project in the United States. The Marlborough Neighborhood Pilot Project, as it is called, is located in the Middle Blue River Basin, one of the four major watersheds addressed by the plan. The entire pilot project encompasses nearly 100 acres of primarily residential neighborhoods. This program is anticipated to be expanded over a larger 744 acre area that will eventually include over 25 acres of mixed green infrastructure strategies (i.e. rain gardens, bioswales, permeable pavement, and green roofs) that have the capacity to sequester 3.5 million gallons of water. The green infrastructure strategies employed are designed to replace two underground tanks of similar capacity. In total the pilot project and its expansion are budgeted to cost $68 million.

Video of compiled images from Mark O’Hara’s Greenbuild Presentation about the Kansas City Plan. The video shows various Green Infrastructure Strategies recommended in the plan. Video compiled by Hawkins Partners Images provided by BNIM (Click here to see it if  video is not present)

In addition to the Marlborough Neighborhood Pilot Project, the plan also recommends the enhancement of the area’s highly acclaimed 10,000 Rain Garden Program. Over the past two years, the initiative is reported to have installed several hundred rain gardens, bioswales, and rain barrels. The purpose of the expansion it to develop an incentive program to accelerate the program’s progress and complement the public investments being made.

Wet retention basin projects have been identified as an appropriate strategy for treating stormwater downstream from six separated sewer system (SSS). The plan acknowledges that green infrastructure is beneficial and should be included where it is practical. The plan states:

“Every decision should be viewed as an opportunity to incorporate a green-solutions approach. The City has adopted an “every drop counts” philosophy, meaning it is important to reduce stormwater entering the system wherever practicable. This will be accomplished through changing the way the community develops and redevelops its sewer and stormwater infrastructure, educating citizens regarding steps they can take to reduce the amount of stormwater entering the sewer system, enabling citizens to take those steps, incorporating green infrastructure in the design of public infrastructure, and making targeted public investments in green infrastructure projects early in the Plan implementation.”

Areas identified that should be considered for green infrastructure projects include those meeting the following criteria:

  • Areas for which no or minimal conventional structural controls are proposed.
  • Areas in which widespread implementation of green solutions by the community at large offer the greatest opportunities for reducing the size and cost of conventional structural controls included in the Plan.
  • Areas for which it would be particularly desirable to further reduce the projected overflow
    activation frequency following completion of recommended controls.
  • Areas in which sewer separation is proposed but where no Water Services Department (WSD) investment in treating the separate stormwater runoff has been included in the Plan.

    • The plan’s ambitious Marlborough Neighborhood Pilot Project is very encouraging, particularly as a stand alone project. It is very significant and the City should be commended for their efforts. However based on the $2.3 billion budget established by the plan, it is evident that green infrastructure will play a supporting role. The plan was developed during the recent significant shift in the way we address stormwater management across the country over the last few years. It is not surprise to see this. What is encouraging is the magnitude of the pilot project and the extensive monitoring that will be conducted.

    The monitoring component will provide valuable data for the City and others across the country. In addition to understanding green infrastructure’s effectiveness to control Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) and improving water quality, monitoring it will provide insight into conflicts with local codes and ordinance, social-economic benefits, construction techniques, associated cost, and maintenance practices.

    The plan stresses that it is an evolutionary document, referring to it as an “adaptive management” approach. The approach involves evaluation of the strategy throughout the life of the project based on their experiences and data gathered through the monitoring efforts. While green infrastructure may not be the predominant tool of choice at this point, the longer-term nature of the plan provides the opportunity to adjust its course as confidence increases in green infrastructure. The City’s plan can become more green overtime as it builds upon its successes.

    Fairly or unfairly, like many pilot projects much rests on the success of the Marlborough Neighborhood Pilot Project. Many, both locally and nationally will be watching it with great interest. Failure of such a high profile project could significantly set back the growth of green infrastructure as the stormwater management tool of choice. Therefore, it is critical it is done to the highest standards possible. The project will serve as an example for those involved in stormwater planning and design to have full confidence and understanding of the complexities of utilizing natural systems. Natural processes are complex making them more difficult to quantify. A paper prepared in 2007 by the Center for Neighborhood Technology titled “Managing Urban Stormwater with Green Infrastructure: Case Studies of Five U.S. Local Governments”, identified the lack of performance data as a barrier to green infrastructure implementation. The more research we do and data we collect the better off we will all be.

    I anticipate this will be a successful demonstration of green infrastructure. It is exciting to see another city embrace green infrastructure on such a large scale. We will all eagerly await the results and follow its realization. Construction is expected to start soon.

    -Brian Phelps


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    Categories : Bioretention, Green roof, Green Street, Pervious Pavement, Plans and studies, Sustainable Site Strategies, Water Harvesting

    Triple Bottom Line of Green Infrastructure

    18 11 2009

    Before and After of Green Infrastructure Improvements
    (Source:“Green Cities Clean Waters” Plan)

    In an earlier post titled “Making Green Infrastructure Common Place” we discussed the recent release of Philadelphia’s $1.6 billion dollar “Green Cities Clean Waters” Plan. Its thrust is to transform over 4,000 acres of impervious areas within the City’s Combined Sewer System to green space over the next 20 years through the use of green infrastructure strategies. This would involve converting over 34% of all existing impervious areas. Of this, the conversion will primarily be made on public property and right-of-ways. Green streets, the most widely used management tool, will comprise nearly 38% of these improvements (see graphic). The report claims this is “the largest green stormwater infrastructure program ever envisioned in this country”. While green infrastructure has been utilized and proven in many parts of the country, the sheer magnitude and commitment of the city is a radical departure from the conventional approach to stormwater management practices.

    Map of Green Street Locations
    (Source:“Green Cities Clean Waters” Plan)

    So why did Philadelphia decide to rely so heavily on green infrastructure as a means of reducing overflows in their CSO system? Quite simply it was cheaper, significantly cheaper. The plan estimates over the next 20 years the plan is to be implemented, the “triple bottom line” benefits (social, environments, economic) of the plan alone will add up to a present value of $2.2 billion dollars. The following is a breakdown of the benefits that comprise this figure.

    • Heat Stress Mortality Reduction (35%)
    • Recreation (22%)
    • Property Value Added (18%)
    • Water Quality and Habitat (14.5%)
    • Air Quality (4.6%)
    • Avoided Social Costs from Green Jobs (3.7%)
    • Energy Savings (1.0%)
    • Carbon Footprint Reduction (0.6%)
    • Reduction in Construction- Related Disruptions (0.2%)

    So instead of employing conventional underground infrastructure that is one-dimensional, and is estimated to cost $16 billion, the city has decided that implementing a multi-dimensional strategy with multiple benefits made more sense. But not only is it more desirable, it is politically easier to implement because it makes the city a more beautiful and healthy place. So if you are going to have to spend the money anyway, why not make it count.

    The shortcomings of the conventional “tanks and tunnels” approach were not only that it exceeded the EPA’s affordability standard for stormwater management (2% of median household income), but it also did not address water quality issues and could require green infrastructure tools anyway to meet these requirements. In addition, the report points out that the conventional solution isn’t aligned with the EPA’s broader goals of sustainability, reduces streams baseflow thereby damaging the resources that is designed to protect, and doesn’t offer any secondary triple bottom line benefits. Furthermore, since the conventional solution is not delivered incrementally it is not flexible and does not offer any benefits immediately.

    Green infrastructure on the other hand offered the city the opportunity to revitalize and restore the city’s streams and rivers, enhance the quality of the built environment throughout the city, improve air quality, reduce the heat island effect, and sequester carbon. While accumulating these benefits, the approach was more flexible, offered immediate benefits, and, most importantly, the cost of implementation was offset by the dollar value of the benefits. (see Volume 2: Triple Bottom Line Analysis of the plan for specifics)

    While conventional infrastructure has its place, the combination of the two can play a significant role in addressing many of the issues facing our cities. It is critical that we continue to move toward making these strategies common place. By doing so we can make our cities healthier and more beautiful for all of us to enjoy, while at the same time responsibly managing our stormwater.

    -Brian Phelps


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    EPA to test porous pavement and raingarden benefits

    11 11 2009

    1700 Charlotte
    1700 Charlotte in Nashville
    Combines Porous Concrete & Bioswales

    Traditional asphalt parking lots may seem to be the most cost efficient, but underlying costs such as increased pollution and water load on our sewer systems need to be considered as well. In an attempt to measure those underlying costs the EPA has replaced nearly 43,000 SF of their traditional asphalt parking with 3 different types of permeable pavement systems and several raingardens with different planted vegetation. At their Edison, NJ facility they will conduct a decade long study to evaluate and document the performances of these permeable systems on the basis of removing pollutants and filtering capabilities. Having these systems all in the same location will likely result in more balanced testing of each material.

    This study comes at an ideal time as many cities are beginning to re-evaluate old paving methods in order to reduce the load on existing sewer systems or just to reduce the amount of toxin runoff from paved surfaces to our nearby rivers and lakes. Traditional asphalt parking lots collect oil, grease and other debris over time, after a heavy rain or snowstorm these toxins are washed from the parking surface to the nearest storm drain or permeable surface. Replacing this impervious surface with a permeable pavement or raingarden will allow plants and soils to naturally filter the pollutants, while re-charging the ground water table.

    Porous for Blog
    Porous Concrete

    -Will Marth


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    Sustainable Site Strategies: Rosemary Beach, Florida

    2 11 2009

    Rosemary Beach-050
    Rosemary Beach-099

    I recently returned from a relaxing week long family vacation in Rosemary Beach, Florida, located on the panhandle just west of Panama City Beach. For those of you not familiar, this is a traditional neighborhood development established in 1995 complete with a Town Center that includes a post office, retail and restaurant space, a hotel, neighborhood parks and more. Many people choose to spend their vacation here for obvious reasons: sun, sand, surf and swimming pools but let’s review what visitors may not notice during their stay.

    The following is from the RB website…

    “Natural foliage creeps into the pervious pavement streets to slow what little motorized traffic finds its way into town, and keeps drivers alert – a conscious effort to create a safe environment for foot and bicycle traffic. Go green and get pampered at Rosemary Beach!”…

    As stated, the streets are constructed of pervious concrete, which allows stormwater from frequent rain showers to penetrate through the pavement and directly into the sandy soil base rather than sheet drain to the typical/conventional system of numerous curb and gutters, inlets and concrete pipes. This isn’t to say there aren’t any storm sewer pipes as part of the infrastructure, just less because of an alternative stormwater solution. The average person visiting Rosemary may only notice that the driving surface is not asphalt and is more ‘bumpy’ that typical concrete.

    In addition to pervious concrete, the use of native vegetation is another sustainable site strategy. Using native vegetation requires less water and maintenance while supporting bio-diversity of local wildlife species. Sidewalks, neighborhood boardwalk paths and parks are lined with plants that seem to have been there prior to development and give the impression that the buildings were somehow built around them. Live Oaks create a dramatic tunnel effect over the sidewalks while providing habitat for wildlife such as birds and squirrels. Lizards appear to love hanging out under the low growing palm shrubs and other native plant material. The careful planning of plant material size, location and scale of streetscape planting also aids in the slowing of motorist traffic by psychological affect.

    These are only two simple sustainable site strategies/design elements that may go unnoticed by the typical visitor but could serve as an example of how to develop in the future. By the way, I did have fun and relax with my family and didn’t spend they whole week analyzing better ways to develop.

    – Brian Hudson


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    Deaderick Street’s Transformation

    28 10 2009

    The Tennessee Urban Forestry conference was in town recently and asked Hawkins Partners to give a guided tour of the Nashville Public Square and Deaderick Street. This marked our first “official” tour of Deaderick Street to discuss all of the exciting new aspects of the green street.

    Deaderick_Street_3

    The recent transformation of Deaderick Street recalls the historic importance of the street and enhance the corridor’s prominence as an important civic axis. Prior to the renovations, the street had become most widely known as the central transfer point for the Metro bus system. In the Fall of 2008 the bus system’s hub was relocated one block over to the ambitious Music City Central, presenting an opportunity to re-envision the street itself

    Deaderick_Street_4

    The renovations to the street primarily focused on addressing stormwater issues and urban trees. The existing streetscape was home to an assortment of unhealthy trees ranging in sizes from 2” caliper up to 24”+. Each and every one of them were shoehorned into a 4’x4’ planting zone and struggling to adapt to urban conditions. The renovations included removing those trees and providing larger and deeper planting areas that would not only give a larger volume of soil for the tree roots, but also provide many areas in which the stormwater could travel to, thus reducing the loads into the storm system. Bioretention zones were implemented in pedestrian bulbs at the intersections and in relation to the existing catch basins. These planting areas were also excavated to a depth that would accept enough engineered soils to allow infiltration and planted with plants that can adapt to the extremes of wet and dry conditions. Pervious area within the corridor was increased by over 700%.

    Deaderick_Street_1

    Many other elements of sustainability were included, such as:

    • Crushed and recycled concrete used for the pavement subbase,
    • Fly ash utilized in the concrete mix,
    • Porous concrete,
    • LED light fixtures,
    • Native and drought tolerant plant materials,
    • Solar powered parking meters,
    • Water efficient irrigation system,
    • Many local vendors and fabricators,
    • The addition of bike racks to help encourage a healthier way to travel, and
    • The addition of recycling receptacles along the street.

    We’re hoping that in the near future, permanent retail kiosks that were proposed in the master plan will be added to the street, further enlivening the corridor. Those kiosks are proposed to have an extensive greenroof on each. In addition, the master plan identified areas for future free standing retail buildings and liner buildings that could be added on the blank facades.

    – Laura Schroeder


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