Green Infrastructure: How to Manage Water in a Sustainable Way
Sourced from NRDC
From highways to bridges to airports, America’s infrastructure is in dire need of a face-lift. The critical systems we rely on nationwide endure chronic overuse and underinvestment, including our stormwater management systems. An estimated 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater runoff, containing everything from raw sewage to trash to toxins, enters U.S. waterways from city sewer systems every year, polluting the environment and drinking water supplies. In many urban and suburban areas, this runoff causes significant flooding as well. Not surprisingly, in 2021, the American Society of Civil Engineers bestowed a lowly D letter grade on U.S. stormwater and sewage systems. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that upgrading our stormwater and other public wastewater systems will require at least $150 billion in investments over the next two decades.
The country’s urgent infrastructure needs also present a major opportunity. As an alternative to traditional water management systems, green infrastructure offers a cost-effective solution to many of our water woes, including how to handle flooding and stormwater pollution. Here’s a look at what green infrastructure is, what it does, and why we should invest so much green paper in it.
What Is Green Infrastructure?
Green infrastructure encompasses a variety of water management practices, such as vegetated rooftops, roadside plantings, absorbent gardens, and other measures that capture, filter, and reduce stormwater. In doing so, it cuts down on the amount of flooding and reduces the polluted runoff that reaches sewers, streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Green infrastructure captures the rain where it falls. It mimics natural hydrological processes and uses natural elements such as soil and plants to turn rainfall into a resource instead of a waste. It also increases the quality and quantity of local water supplies and provides myriad other environmental, economic, and health benefits—often in nature-starved urban areas.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
