Academic Greenspace supports well-being, university performance, education outcomes.

GREEN
Academic Greenspace ensures mental recovery for students and sta in study breaks.
Academic Greenspace promotes social, physical, and mental well-being.

INFRASTRUCTURE

A Guidebook for the

Theory and Practice of Design
in Landscape Architecture

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
LANDSCAPE TECHNOLOGY

ff

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Green infrastructure is defined as the natural vegetative systems and green technologies that
collectively provide society with a multitude of economic, environmental and social benefits
(Green Infrastructure Ontario Coalition, 2020).

Green infrastructure is a term that can encompass a wide array of specific practices, and a
number of definitions exist (EPA, 2019). Green infrastructure is an approach to water
management that protects, restores, or mimics the natural water cycle. Green infrastructure
is effective, economical, and enhances community safety and quality of life. Green
infrastructure incorporates both the natural environment and engineered systems to provide
clean water, conserve ecosystem values and functions, and provide a wide array of benefits
to people and wildlife.

Green infrastructure is a system that extends from big city centres to rural areas. All
components of the system  are vital assets to our communities. Green infrastructure
solutions can be applied on different scales, from the house or building level, to the
broader landscape level. On the local level, green infrastructure practices include rain
gardens, permeable pavements, green roofs, infiltration planters, trees and tree boxes,
and rainwater harvesting systems. At the largest scale, the preservation and
restoration of natural landscapes (such as forests, floodplains and wetlands) are
critical components of green infrastructure.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
COMPREHENSIVE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Green Infrastructure (GI) is based on the principle that ‘protecting and enhancing
nature and natural processes […] are consciously integrated into spatial
planning and territorial development’. Accordingly, the Green Infrastructure
Strategy defines GI as ‘a strategically planned network of natural and semi-
natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to
deliver a wide range of ecosystem services’ in both rural and urban settings (EC,
2013a).

GI promotes multifunctionality, which means that the same area of land is

able to perform several functions and offer multiple benefits if its ecosystems are
in a healthy state. More specifically, GI aims to enhance nature's ability to deliver
multiple valuable ecosystem goods and services, potentially providing a wide
range of environmental, social, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and
biodiversity benefits.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
COMPREHENSIVE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Within GI’s multifunctional approach, benefits are enhanced through connectivity.

It relies on an understanding that these functions are multiplied and enhanced

significantly when the natural environment is planned and managed as an
integrated whole; a managed network of green spaces, habitats and places
providing benefits which exceed the sum of the individual parts.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
COMPREHENSIVE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Green Infrastructure (GI) favours a more sustainable and resource efficient
development process by encouraging the use of limited space in a coherent,
smart and integrated way.

GI comprises a wide range of environmental features that operate at different

scales and form part of an interconnected ecological network. At the same time,
these features must be multifunctional; they must be more than simply ‘a green
space’. For example, a single tree in the middle of a city or an isolated patch of
uniform grass are unlikely to be qualified as GI unless they also contribute to
key local environmental values. Nevertheless, these spatial features may

GI is designed to maintain and enhance the delivery of benefits to human

society in the form of food, materials, clean water, clean air, climate regulation,
flood prevention, pollination, and recreation among others. These benefits are
known as ecosystem services. Direct access to the benefits these services
provide is particularly important in urban areas and their fringes, where most
people live and where the highest population densities are found

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
STORMWATER GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
SUDS, LID, BMPs, WSUD and more…
Given the increase in urbanisation worldwide, and the impact of urban stormwater on
both humans and aquatic ecosystems, the management of urban drainage is a
critically important challenge (Chocat et al., 2001; Fletcher et al., 2013). The
management of urban drainage and the urban water cycle more broadly has thus seen
significant change over the past few decades, shifting from largely narrowly-focussed
approaches (typically with the sole aim of reducing flooding) to an approach where
multiple objectives drive the design and decision-making process.

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are an approach to managing rainfall

that mirror natural systems. ... SuDS can provide a creative way to manage
rainfall in a way that can actually improve the quality of the built environment.
Low-impact development (LID) is a term used in Canada and the United
States to describe a land planning and engineering design approach to manage
stormwater runoff as part of green infrastructure. LID emphasizes conservation
and use of on-site natural features to protect water quality. Best management
practices (BMPs) describe ways to manage your land and activities to mitigate
pollution of surface and groundwater near you.

Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is an emerging urban development

approach aimed to minimise hydrological impacts of urban development on
environment. ... minimise wastewater discharges to the natural environment;
integrate water into the landscape to enhance visual, social, cultural and
ecological values. An integrated approach to stormwater management is the
key to water sensitive urban design. This integrated approach regards
stormwater as a resource rather than a burden and considers all aspects of run-
off within a development, including environmental, social and cultural issues.

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
EXAMPLES OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
Urban forests and woodlots
Bioswales, engineered wetlands and stormwater ponds
Wetlands, ravines, waterways and riparian zones
Meadows and agricultural lands
Green roofs and green walls
Urban agriculture

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
EXAMPLES OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
EXAMPLES OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
EXAMPLES OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
EXAMPLES OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
EXAMPLES OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE RESOURCES
https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/sustainability-transitions/urban-environment/
urban-green-infrastructure/what-is-green-infrastructure

https://www.tcpa.org.uk/green-infrastructure-definition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_infrastructure

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/green-infrastructure-how-manage-water-
sustainable-way

https://landscapewpstorage01.blob.core.windows.net/www-landscapeinstitute-
org/2016/03/Green-Infrastructure_an-integrated-approach-to-land-use.pdf

https://greeninfrastructureontario.org

https://waterbucket.ca/gi/2017/05/14/what-is-green-infrastructure-looking-back-
to-understand-the-origin-meaning-and-use-of-the-term-in-british-columbia/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/user/identity/landing?
code=H2TF8OqWk5L3J1mjMRdpl9Hk1jLdK-
qSG69GgI24&state=retryCounter%3D0%26csrfToken%3D3795b1f1-415c-4a85-
8dad-44e959edcac4%26idpPolicy%3Durn%253Acom%253Aelsevier%253Aidp
%253Apolicy%253Aproduct%253Ainst_assoc%26returnUrl%3D%252Fscience
%252Farticle%252Fpii%252FS0264837720302064%253Fdgcid%253Drss_sd_a
ll%26prompt%3Dnone%26cid%3Darp-92a24d0b-5892-4329-
b61f-0a38c8108184

https://ramboll.com/services-and-sectors/planning-and-urban-design/blue-green-
infrastructure-design

https://parkpeople.ca/2017/07/25/resilient-parks-resilient-city-the-role-of-green-
infrastructure-and-parks-in-creating-more-climate-adaptive-cities/

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
CORKTOWN COMMON PARK - LOWER DON RIVER
MICHAEL VAN VALKENBURGH ASSOCIATES, INC., 2014

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
URBAN PRARIE - CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION
CLAUDE CORMIER + ASSOCIATES, 2015

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
BUDAPEST SOUTHERN CITY GATE
SNØHETTA, 2020

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
POTSDAMER PLATZ
ATELIER DREISEITL, 2000

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE

 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
TANNER SPRINGS PARK
ROMBOLL GROUP, 2015

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN FOR A CHANGING FUTURE