Green Infrastructure is being recognized as a strategy that can upgrade urban landscapes while at the same time making significant contributions to human health, human capital and economic revitalization. Green infrastructure may provide a strategy for solving costly urban issues such as storm water management at much lower expense to rate payers.

Used as a noun, green infrastructure refers to an interconnected green space network (including natural areas and features, public and private conservation lands, working lands with conservation values, and other protected open spaces) that is planned and managed for its natural resource values and for the associated benefits it confers to human populations. Used as an adjective, green infrastructure describes a process that promotes a systematic and strategic approach to land conservation a the national, state, regional, and local scales, encouraging land-use planning and practices that are good for nature and for people.

Benedict, Mark A. and McMahon, Edward T. 2006. Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Community Gardens and Greenspace held a Green Infrastructure Symposium on October 21, 2009 to provide an opportunity for local municipalities and practitioners to hear leading experts from around the country present on green infrastructure issues. Click here to read the press release. This event was made possible by a grant from the Colcom Foundation. We are grateful to Point Park University for hosting the Symposium at its downtown Pittsburgh campus.

Power point presentations from the day’s speakers are available below in pdf form:

• Bill Jenkins, E.P.A., Region 3: Green Infrastructure: A Foundation for Creating Sustainable Communities
• Howard Neukrug, Office of Watersheds, City of Philadelphia: Green City… Clean Water: Blending Interests of Land and Water
• Susan Wachter, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: Greening Vacant Land
• Kathleen Wolf, College of Forest Resources, University of Washington: Trees, Mind, & Economy: Enriching Our Citizens
• Chuck Flink, Greenways Incorporated: Greenways as Green Infrastructure
• Jennifer Greenfeld, Central Forestry & Horticulture, New York City Department of Parks & Recreation: Streetscapes and Street Trees

For more information, please contact Gavin Deming at gdeming@paconserve.org or 412-586-2394.