The United States National Recreation and Park Associations has created an online framework and toolkit to act as a guide to help evaluate green infrastructure projects with a comprehensive collection of tools, research-informed analysis, and many other resources.
While many resources and case studies are from the United States, the benefits of green infrastructure are extensive and often universal. This online framework helps users put projects into the context of benefits such as environmental, health, social and economic in three easy steps:
- Define the benefits
- Collect benefits data
- Use your data
The Green Infrastructure Benefits Tool within the online resource library is a great tool for users to filter through several common green infrastructure solutions such as green roofs, land conservation, urban tree canopy, bioretention etc., and to see the associated benefits. Alternatively, you can choose a targeted benefit and find the best green infrastructure forms to help reach those goals. For example, decreasing temperatures may be achieved through stream restoration, urban tree canopy, green roofs, wetland construction, but is unlikely to be achieved through rainwater harvesting.
The online framework has additional guides providing recommended data collection methods and strategies to implement green infrastructure projects.
For anyone looking for a comprehensive guide to keep your green infrastructure project on track, check it out here.