Green Infrastructure

All throughout major cities there is a major lack of one thing- nature. Regardless of what metropolitan jungle you call home, one cannot deny the lack of green space scattered around. In more recent years there has been more focus on incorporating green areas around a city to increase, oxygen, help combat urban heat islands, and an over-all a mental health benefit. 

In the recent few years urban developers have been looking more to include green infrastructure into city spaces. For example in the city of Philadelphia there is a plan set in place, over the next 25 years, close to $1.2 billion to incorporate more concrete tunnels to move water. With this set in place it is estimated to reduce carbon dioxide by 1.5 billion pounds of emission a year, stated as compared to removing approximately 3,400 vehicles from the roads. (Professional Practice). Not only will this help the environment this will also boost the economy with an influx of jobs to help create this green solution. The city also estimates there will be a decrease in asthma and heat related deaths or injuries due to the improved air quality. In New York city the city planners are estimating a higher budget for their plan however expecting to save $1 billion from green storm water management systems. Also creating a major incline in the cities property taxes, mental heath and social life, on top of being beneficial toward the environment. The range of benefits the city is expecting is from $139-$418 million over 20 years of the project given how many measures of the plan are implemented. (Professional Practice). 

In many urban areas there are much diversity with the plant life, whether this be a large amount of invasive species or even native species. Typically though, there is a vast difference in the amount of invasive species in an urban area and usually create competition between the native species where the invasive species always can out-compete. However if city planners were to reduce the amount of non-native and invasive species by planting more native species in the area, this will decrease the maintenance and the irrigation needed as these species are made to respond naturally to their environment. Also stated in the article, "Urban forests should also include a diversity of species to avoid mono-cultures, which reduce biodiversity and are less resilient to pests and other environmental factors that can harm or kill trees."  (Professional Practice). A mono-culture is when a species over powers another species and creates a monopoly of where the native species cannot survive against the non-native species. With good practices the inclusion of native species will create a healthy living environment. Recently a Congresswoman from California authored a plan to increase education and information to encourage her residents to up-keep with their own shade trees as a way reduce the number of shade tress planted to help cool the residential areas of the state. As more people in power are acknowledging the dire need to create more green space and infrastructure there will be an equal response from the public to help keep their own community green. 

The above image shows Kudzu, an invasive species brought to this country to help combat erosion on hillsides which has spread all over the country creating a mono-culture due to it killing all other plant species. 

The inclusion of green infrastructure in cities not only helps the environment, but helps boost city morale, mental health, and can help the economy with the creation of jobs. 


References

Professional practice. Green Infrastructure: Cities. (n.d.). https://www.asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=43535 

Yahoo! (n.d.). Green+Infrastructure+in+cities. Yahoo! https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrFRsjvSjJmLAQA6llXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=green%2Binfrastructure%2Bin%2Bcities&fr2=piv-web&type=E210US739G0&fr=mcafee#id=9&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnaturalwalkingcities.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F09%2FDSC_2421-780x437.jpg&action=click

Yahoo! (n.d.-b). Invasive+and+Native+species+in+A+city+. Yahoo! https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrFOlP6UTJmKI0TNJqJzbkF;_ylu=c2VjA3NlYXJjaARzbGsDYnV0dG9u;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNjI4NTcEX3IDMgRmcgNtY2FmZWUEZnIyA3A6cyx2OmksbTpzYi10b3AEZ3ByaWQDb1hjVFBKMDFUY2lIWVlfRGhOQjNzQQRuX3JzbHQDMARuX3N1Z2cDMARvcmlnaW4DaW1hZ2VzLnNlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMwBHFzdHJsAzM4BHF1ZXJ5A2ludmFzaXZlJTIwYW5kJTIwbmF0aXZlJTIwc3BlY2llcyUyMGluJTIwYSUyMGNpdHklMjAEdF9zdG1wAzE3MTQ1NzM4Mzk-?p=invasive%2Band%2Bnative%2Bspecies%2Bin%2Ba%2Bcity%2B&fr=mcafee&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Ai%2Cm%3Asb-top&ei=UTF-8&x=wrt&type=E210US739G0#id=4&iurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.edu%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fblog%2F0002156-lgpt1.jpg&action=click


 

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