Green Infrastructure

One organic metaphor envisions urban parks as the lungs of a city, as suggested by this bucolic scene in Brooklyn, New York's Prospect Park

Source: iStockphoto

Green infrastructure is the interconnected systems of soils, water, air, vegetation, and animal life that constitute a healthy ecosystem. It provides services to humans that would otherwise need to be provided by constructed infrastructure. Examples of green infrastructure include wetlands that provide storm-water filtration and trees that cool buildings by providing shade. The concept of green infrastructure serves as a corrective to common under standings that urban landscapes exist at the expense of natural ones. Emphasizing the services that green infrastructure provides reconnects urban systems to the natural landscape, no matter how transformed, and advocates for preserving, restoring, and replicating natural ...