Green Infrastructure: Trying to Create a More Permeable New York City

 

 

Green Infrastructure Plan

“With his 2007 sustainability blueprint, PlaNYC 2030, Mayor Michael Bloomberg brought New York into the vanguard of American cities in acknowledging the importance of green space to the city's long-term viability,” writes Anne Schwartz in a column published on the Gotham Gazette.

“The plan set a goal of putting parkland within a 10-minute walk of every resident, transforming streets into public open space and expanding the amount of 'green permeable surface'.”

“Instead of building more tanks, tunnels and other expensive controls to prevent combined stormwater and sewage from polluting the harbor, the city is investing in green infrastructure,” continues Anne Schwarz.

“This approach uses advances in urban ecology and state-of-the-art hydrological modeling to create and manage a low-maintenance network of natural lands, plantings and permeable surfaces that can capture rainwater before it enters the sewer system.”

 

Quotable Quote

“Green infrastructure is the wave of the future,” says Bram Gunther, chief of forestry, horticulture and natural resources group at the New York CIty parks department. “That’s how any city that’s interested in sustaining itself and its public health over time has to view its urban planning.”

 

To Learn More:

To read the complete story, click on Trying to Create a More Permeable New York

To read a story publisbed previously on Water Bucket, click on New York City adopts green infrastructure strategy for reducing sewer overflows into waterways

NYC green infrastructure plan - cover (360p) - october 2010

Posted May 2011