Green infrastructure can provide sustainable regenerative solutions for the urban challenges, according to the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Mangement’s new briefing report titled Multifunctional Urban Green Infrastructure.

 

The briefing report is aimed at policy-makers and practitioners and discusses the drivers and barriers to increasing green infrastructure provision in the towns and cities of the United Kingdom. 

 

In releasing the report, CIWEM says that the dramatic increase in land use pressure caused by having over 80 percent of the United Kingdom population living in urban areas combined with an increase in temperature due to climate change, it is essential that green infrastructure is embedded into planning and funding priorities.

 

To download a copy of the CIWEM report, click on Multifunctional Urban Green Infrastructure.

“A recent trend is the loss of private gardens. Private gardens are a valuable resource for urban drainage as they can absorb up to ten litres of rainwater a minute. In Greater London, private gardens make up a fifth of the area, yet here and elsewhere there has been a trend of converting front gardens into paved areas of hard standing to provide car parking spaces. The loss of front gardens results in increased pressure on street drainage, has implications for the transfer of pollutants to rivers,”  the report states.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is a leading professional and examining body for scientists, engineers, other environmental professionals, students and those committed to the sustainable management and development of water and the environment.

 

CIWEM has a history of working in environmental management dating back to 1895. The present day Institution was formed in 1987 when the Institution of Public Health Engineers merged with the Institution of Water Engineers and Scientists and the Institute of Water Pollution Control to form the Institution of Water and Environmental Management.The Institution was granted a Royal Charter in 1995

 

 

Posted May 2010