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Green Infrastructure

The Council of Governments' Green Infrastructure program involves periodic forums and the production of maps and other materials. Recent products include maps based on satellite imagery. Consult the menu at the right for more information.

Take a Virtual Green Infrastructure Tour of the Washington Metropolitan Area 2005 5.5 MB PDF of slide show (left-click to view via Web, right-click to save to disk)

Green Infrastructure is defined as:

Our Nation’s natural life support system – an interconnected network of waterways, wetlands, woodlands, wildlife habitats, and other natural areas; greenways, parks and other conservation lands; working farms, ranches, and forests of conservation value; and wilderness and other open spaces that support native species, maintain natural ecological processes, sustain air and water resources and contribute to the health and quality of life for America’s communities and people.
– President’s Council on Sustainable Development

I think there’s an opportunity to look at how we regenerate communities and ecologies by looking at green space as a form of infrastructure like roads, water lines, and sewers. When we talk about green infrastructure in the Washington [D.C.] area, we talk about everything from window boxes, to Rock Creek Park and in between: it’s urban gardens, residential landscaping, pocket parks, landscaped portions of a development parcel, linear parks, riparian buffers, street trees, parkways, farms and large parks and reserves.
– Glenn Eugster, National Park Service - OMG Open Space Roundtable Philadelphia, 2001

Current work is sponsored by the National Park Service and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.