The document discusses green infrastructure and defines it as an interconnected network of natural and open spaces that provides ecosystem benefits and sustains society. It summarizes a Chicago Wilderness project that identified over 140 resource protection areas totaling over 1.8 million acres to develop a green infrastructure vision. The vision focuses on implementing green infrastructure at regional, community, neighborhood, and site scales.

2. Isn’t Chicago Wilderness an Oxymoron?

8. Green Infrastructure ??

11. But Seriously,
What is Green Infrastructure?
• Chicago Wilderness Definition:
– Green Infrastructure – interconnected network of
natural areas and open space that conserves
ecosystem values and functions that sustain our
society.
– Which is based on definitions used and published
by The Conservation Fund and the book Green
Infrastructure by Benedict and McMahon

12. What is Green Infrastructure?
• Contrast that definition with that of USEPA:
An approach to wet weather management that
is cost-effective, sustainable, and
environmentally friendly. Green infrastructure
management approaches and technologies
infiltrate, evapo-transpire, capture, and reuse
storm water to maintain or restore natural
hydrologies. --- which is more focused on water
as it may be used here in Sweetwater.

13. CW Original Project Purpose
Develop a tangible,
green infrastructure
vision that reflected
the goals and
recommendations of
the Biodiversity
Recovery Plan.

14. Project Approach
• Held a series of workshops with CW
members and resource agencies – over 90
participants
– Initial workshop with Metropolis 2020
– Follow-up meetings w/NE Illinois advisors
(corrections and additions)
– Workshop in SE Wisconsin
– Workshop in NW Indiana
– Input from City of Chicago green infrastructure
process

15. The Background Data
• Baseline data included:
– Streams and rivers
– Floodplains
– Wetlands and lakes
– Woodlands
– Grasslands
– Natural areas
– Publicly owned natural lands
– Watershed boundaries

18. Summary
• Over 140 resource protection areas
identified, totaling over 1.8 million acres
• Compares to:
– 360,000+ acres of protected public
natural open space in Chicago
Wilderness
– over 6 million total acres within the 3-
state assessment area

19. • Green Infrastructure Vision at four scales:
– Regional - by working with regional planning
agencies incorporate conservation development
principles and natural resource preservation and
stewardship into land use and transportation plans.
– Community - by incorporating principles of
biodiversity conservation, sustainability, and people-
friendly design into land use plans and ordinances.
– Neighborhood - by promoting the preservation of
natural spaces, conservation design and access to
nature into developing communities, and
– Site - by promoting native landscaping, the use of
rain gardens and rain barrels, and through the
greening of schoolyards and other community open
spaces.

21. Ongoing GIV Implementation
• Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge & ICC
Pilot
• Millennium Reserve & Calumet ICC Pilot
• S.W.A.T. – Sustainable Watershed Action Team
• Knowledge Base Pilot
• CW Outreach Plan
• Field Museum GI Workshop Series
• Environmental Practice GI Theme Issue
• Chicago GI Plan
• NW Indiana Regional Plan
• Transportation Initiative
• Trees and Green Infrastructure initiative

22. Implementation
Focus
Areas

23. Develop and disseminate tools
Sustainability Guide for Municipalities
Conservation Design:
Model Ordinance
Cost/benefit analysis
Natural Landscaping Guide
• Local jurisdictions were unfamiliar with GI concepts
and conservation planning

24. CMAP GoTo 2040 Plan
“Goal: Increase Conservation Open Space from
250,000 to 400,000 acres”

25. Recommendations
A top GO TO 2040 priority is to expand the
green infrastructure network:
– Increase parks. Provide more parks in
developed areas to increase park
accessibility.
– Preserve natural areas. Preserve the
most important natural areas in the
region.
– Make connections. Provide functional
connections between parks and
preserves, using the green infrastructure
network as a design concept.

26. Refinement of the CW Green Infrastructure Vision
August 2, 2011

27. Identified Primary Landscape Types and Attributes
• Landscapes are “a mosaic of ecosystems or land uses that possess common attributes
that are repeated across a large area.” (Richard Forman)
• Landscapes provide the rationale for deciding what resource attributes or features to
include and connect within your green infrastructure network.
• Landscapes can be categorized in a variety of ways depending upon your network
design goals
Landscape Type Landscape Attribute
• Forests • Large blocks of unfragmented forests that support
forest interior and neo-tropical migratory bird
• Wetlands
species
• Freshwater aquatic • High quality wetland complexes that provide flood
systems mitigation and water quality benefits
• Minimally impaired stream reaches with riparian
• Prairies
vegetation, within minimally impacted watersheds
that support water quality and wildlife habitat
• Large blocks of native prairie that support
endangered area sensitive bird species

28. Collected and Assessed GIS Data for Network Design
• Data quality
assessment
– Find best available
data
– Fitness for use
– Spatial/Attribute
Consistency
– Lineage
– Currency
– Completeness
– Resolution
Data Quality Assessment Matrix

29. Design and Connect Network Features
Core Areas:
• Contain fully functional
natural ecosystems
• Provide high-quality
habitat for native plants
and animals
Hubs:
• Slightly fragmented
aggregations of core
areas, plus contiguous
natural cover
Corridors:
• Link core areas together
• Allow animal movement
and seed and pollen
transfer between core
areas

36. What are the Results and Benefits of
this Green Infrastructure Network?
•Need Much More Monitoring of Projects at
all 4 Scales
•Organizations like USEPA, Center for
Neighborhood Technology trying to gather
•Some Studies like one in Ohio . . .

37. Study used a reverse auction economic incentive to place rain
gardens and rain barrels onto parcels in a 1.8-km2 watershed near
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hydrologic, water-quality, and ecological monitoring program
documented environmental conditions before and after treatment.
Results were installation of 83 rain gardens and 176 rain barrels onto
more than 20% of the properties
Preliminary analyses indicate that the overall discharge regime was
altered by the treatments.
Distributed storm-water installations contributed to ecosystem
services such as flood protection, water supply, and water infiltration;
provided benefits to the local residents; and reduced the need for larger,
expensive, centralized retrofits (such as deep tunnel storage).
-Environmental Practice 14:57–67 (2012)

38. Gray Infrastructure

39. Water Quality and Quantity. . .

41. Questions