By Anna Patterson, Project Director, SOG Environmental Finance Center and Amanda Peele, Project Analyst, SOG Environmental Finance Center
Severe weather events, such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, damaging winds and severe winter weather, disrupt essential services, damage infrastructure, and threaten public health. They also strain economies and displace communities, underscoring the need for resilience and preparedness. Investing in green infrastructure—such as rain gardens, permeable pavements, and urban forests—can help mitigate these impacts by improving stormwater management, reducing heat, and enhancing community resilience.
The Case for Green Infrastructure
Green infrastructure installations improve a municipality’s resilience and recovery by managing stormwater, mitigating the effects of weather-related damage, increasing biodiversity, and enhancing quality of life as public amenities. Many types of green infrastructure also cool their environment by reducing the urban heat island effect. They also reduce the impacts of flash flooding by trapping stormwater runoff during a rainstorm and releasing it slowly once the storm is over. Below are ten examples of green infrastructure:
- Bioswales are gently sloped channels that direct stormwater across vegetation, rocks, and dirt. The slowed movement of stormwater allows for filtration and reduced flooding while also providing habitat for animals.
- Rain Gardens are shallow areas, planted with native plants, that collect stormwater runoff, allowing water to filter into the ground slowly. The slow filtration of stormwater allows pollution to settle out of the water, improving water quality. Rain gardens are designed to dry within 48 hours so birds and pollinators can enjoy the garden, but mosquitos can’t breed.
- Permeable Pavement is made of permeable pavers, porous asphalt, or pervious concrete that catches, stores, and filters stormwater right where it lands.
- Rainwater Harvesting through rain barrels, cisterns, pits, aquifers, and nets allows for the capture of rain, dew, and fog for later reuse.
- Urban Forests and Urban Trees create green space in urban settings. Trees absorb rainwater, improve air quality, and reduce urban heat islands.
- Constructed Wetlands are engineered landscapes that mimic natural wetlands. They capture and store stormwater runoff and groundwater, slowing their release while trapping and storing pollutants like heavy metals, agricultural waste, and other industrial waste.
- Living Shorelines incorporate nature-based solutions to coastal erosion. Marshes, reefs, and mangroves stabilize shorelines, protect inland areas against storms, and increase biodiversity.
- Green Roofs are vegetated installations on building rooftops. They insulate buildings, which can decrease energy use, absorb rainwater, mitigate the urban heat island effect, and provide habitat for birds and insects.
- Green Streets and Alleys incorporate green infrastructure into pedestrian and vehicular infrastructure design, such as rain gardens, permeable pavement, and urban trees.
- Community Gardens are shared spaces where people cultivate fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and other plants. They create a space for community building, education, increased food security, and urban green spaces.
Green Infrastructure as a Resilience Tool
Green infrastructure can reduce flash flooding by capturing runoff and holding it until the severe storm has passed. This also allows water to infiltrate the ground slowly, filtering out pollution and recharging the water table. A recent study of city plans for green infrastructure in 20 cities showed that nearly 60% of cities defined green infrastructure by its hydrological benefits and focused on types of GI that manage stormwater as it falls.
Trees and vegetation incorporated into GI also mitigate the effects of severe weather by sequestering air pollution and carbon emissions, improving air quality. Greenery also reduces urban heat island effects by providing shade and reflecting solar radiation that buildings, roads, and parking lots would otherwise absorb. This also equals financial savings since buildings need to use less energy for heating and cooling.
Green Infrastructure as a Public Amenity: Caution Against Green Displacement
Green infrastructure is often lovely, even park-like. Trees are available for lounging under, and community gardens can provide communal spaces that reduce food insecurity. Planners can use GI as a tool to build resiliency or meet municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permit requirements. Incorporating local voices into the planning process is key to developing GI that community members genuinely want.
Green infrastructure installations are on the rise nationwide, and with them can come a desire for housing located nearby. What might begin as stormwater management may have unintended consequences because when GI adds value to neighborhoods, property taxes, rents, and home ownership costs rise.
Example Green Spaces
Proctor Creek Watershed – Atlanta, Georgia
In 2019, Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management (DWM) introduced the nation’s first publicly issued Environmental Impact Bond (EIB) to fund $14 million in green infrastructure projects across the city. These initiatives address persistent flooding and water quality issues through solutions like roadside planter bump-outs, habitat restoration, bioretention features, and constructed wetlands. Designed to manage stormwater, reduce flood risks, and enhance water quality, these projects also create public green spaces within the Proctor Creek Watershed. The DWM estimates they will prevent 55 million gallons of stormwater runoff annually.
Lumberton Community Floodprint – Lumberton, North Carolina
Lumberton, shaped by the Lumber River, has faced increasing flood risks, especially after Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018, which caused widespread damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure. In response, the Coastal Dynamics Design Lab at NC State University proposed land-use strategies for the city’s most flood-prone areas. Converting these spaces into greenways, parks, and wetlands would restore natural stormwater absorption, reduce flood risks, and create new opportunities for recreation and community gathering.
Walnut Creek Wetland Park & Biltmore Hills Park – Raleigh, North Carolina
Since the mid-1990s, community stakeholders have pushed for greater city investment in Southeast Raleigh to address flooding, improve water quality, and promote environmental education. This led to the creation of Walnut Creek Wetland Park and Nature Center in 2003. Over the years, the park has expanded, connecting communities and integrating green infrastructure. In 2023, Raleigh advanced these efforts by installing bioretention areas and bioswales in Biltmore Hills Park to manage stormwater runoff and improve water quality in Rochester Heights, a downstream neighborhood in the Walnut Creek floodplain.
As cities develop plans incorporating green infrastructure, they are encouraged to engage the community throughout the entire process. Green infrastructure offers a wide range of public benefits—let’s strive for a future where it becomes the standard rather than the exception.
Need technical assistance? The SOG Environmental Finance Center is here to help!
The School of Government Environmental Finance Center offers free one-on-one technical assistance for small water systems. If you are interested in our support, fill out our Technical Assistance Request Form or contact us at efc@sog.unc.edu.