Green infrastructure

Green infrastructure is a connected network of natural and engineered landscape features that manages water while supporting ecological, climate, and community benefits.

Stormwater management: The planning and control of rainwater runoff to reduce flooding, pollution, and erosion. Green infrastructure manages runoff by slowing and treating it where it falls.
Green roof: A roof partly or fully covered with vegetation growing over a drainage and waterproofing system. Green roofs retain rainfall and provide vegetation where ground-level space is limited.
Urban ecology: The study of ecological patterns and processes in urban environments. Green infrastructure can reconnect habitat and ecological processes across developed landscapes.
Gray infrastructure: Built infrastructure made primarily from materials such as concrete, steel, and pipes. Conventional pipes and storage structures manage water through engineered conveyance rather than landscape functions.
Bioretention: A planted depression that captures runoff and filters it through engineered soil. Rain gardens and similar features use this process to clean and infiltrate runoff.
Rain garden: A planted shallow basin that collects and infiltrates stormwater runoff. It is a familiar small-scale feature in neighborhood drainage networks.
Urban biodiversity: The variety of genes, species, and ecosystems found in urban areas. Vegetated corridors and wetlands can create habitat within built environments.
Sustainable drainage systems: A drainage approach that manages rainfall close to where it falls using natural processes and design. This closely related planning approach is widely used in the United Kingdom.
Permeable pavement: Paving that allows water to pass through openings into a permeable base layer. It replaces sealed surfaces that would otherwise send rainwater into drains.
Bioswale: A vegetated channel that conveys runoff while slowing, filtering, and infiltrating it. Bioswales connect collection points and treatment areas along streets or sites.

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