Green Infrastructure Wiki proposes a “Table of Elements” way-of-thinking
According to the Green Infrastructure Wiki, green infrastructure needs a conceptual framework that can accommodate the range of scales and functions described by the term. Every emerging field must codify its underlying patterns and principles. Biology has scientific classification and chemistry has the periodic table.
The developers of the Green Infrastructure Wiki propose and invite user contributions to a green infrastructure framework made up of 5 interconnected systems: habitat, community, water, mobility, and energy & materials.
- Each system is made up of green infrastructure elements. These elements are not discrete from one another in the precise way of chemical elements. Some are irreducibly multi-functional and defy clean categorization. Others have specific purposes.
- By attempting to articulate and clarify the elements that make up our green infrastructure networks, they hope to hasten their understanding and application.
- The real magic, of course, is in how these systems work together so they are also collecting case studies that demonstrate how these elements can be combined and layered to form high-performance landscapes.
- Element-specific resources are located on each element page. Resources and measures of health related to a whole system are located on each system's page.
The hope of the Green Infrastructure Wiki is that this will grow into a shared resource for a multi-disciplinary movement. “We applaud this initiative,” commented Raymond Fung, Chair of the British Columbia Green Infrastructure Partnership. “The Green Infrastructure Wiki is consistent with how we envision our Water Bucket community-of-interest could ultimately morph into a community-of-practice.”
Posted June 2008