Low Impact, Natural, Green Infrastructure
Adapting Green Spaces to Capture Rain, Carbon, and the remaining untreated CSO volume
Photo above is the old Putnam Rail Trail -- the site of the Daylighting of Tibbetts Brook, a Green Infrastructure proposal.
What is Green Infrastructure?
Green Infrastructure is nature-based method to capture rain and direct it into the soil as opposed letting it runoff.
Green Infrastructure copies nature and adopts methods to combine soils and plants to capture rain before it runs off. It is a creative way to increase infiltration rates, "in situ," in the place where the rain falls. he goal is to direct the drop of water, as it meanders through the soil and finds a way to the bottom level of the soil structure toward the nearest waterbody's base flow.
This is the way our rivers, lakes and streams work in the untouched forest -- rainwater is transported via tunnels created by ants and other soil creatures, like burrowing insects and worms, and long rooted native plants. All along the way, this process filters pollutants, thereby contributing clean water to the nearest water body.
Like the burrowing insects, long rooted plants help to create tunnels leading water to the base flow of the nearest river, lake or stream. This uptake through the soils provides clean water as nature has for thousands of years through the waterbody's base flow.
Our goal is to direct the drop of water, as it meanders through the soil and finds a way to the bottom level of the soil structure toward the nearest waterbody's base flow. This is the way our rivers, lakes and streams work in the untouched forest -- rainwater is transported via tunnels created by ants and other soil creatures, like burrowing insects and worms, and long rooted native plants. All along the way, this process filters pollutants, thereby contributing clean water to the nearest water body.
This beautiful and efficient method has successfully provided healthy ecological services for centuries. It is a proven superior alternative to the standard urban runoff method of water transport overland which capture sediments, pollutants and toxics with it as it speeds down the hill to the lowest point.
Green Infrastructure costs less, is more protective, and comes in many shapes and sizes. There are green roofs, bioswales, living or natural shorelines, rain barrels, rain gardens, daylighting, and other methods to mold and cultivate your soil to make it more thirsty. All these methods involve looking at trees, native plants, and a variety of creative designs for living shorelines with oyster reefs, castles, and other natural materials to protect and restore wetlands and the waterfront’s edge.Green Infrastructure can also reduce flooding, which damages street infrastructure causing expensive repairs, and major accidents. Finally, less storm water pollution via green infrastructure also means less air pollution. It makes our waterways FISHABLE - SWIMMABLE. A win- win: clean air and clean water!
Bronx Council for Environmental Quality
