NSF R2I2: Advancing Green Infrastructure for a Resilient Future

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

The cascading societal, economic, and ecological consequences of extreme weather across the Northeast highlight the urgent need for resilient urban planning. Nature-based solutions (NBS), including scalable green infrastructure (GI) interventions like meadows, woodlands, rain gardens, and bioswales, offer a promising pathway to mitigate urban heat, manage stormwater, improve water quality, stabilize slopes, and enhance ecosystem services and resilience. Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, PA, over 1.2 million people, and multiple municipalities is a mixture of urban and suburban communities that can consider different types of GI. For a GI initiative to get traction at scale, the solutions must recognize and address the needs, concerns, priorities, and perceived barriers of communities in which the work will be done. The project will apply real-time methods to improve GI implementation, maintenance, and monitoring practices. This Northeast region project will convene a broad group of stakeholders with expertise in hydrological systems, stormwater engineering, community engagement, land management, and education to develop an Allegheny County-wide green infrastructure (GI) adoption and installation plan that will address stormwater runoff, water quality, urban heat and carbon sequestration. The goals of the project are to prioritize and monitor GI installations, engage and support municipalities and advance GI education and outreach. These goals are to build toward a longer-term goal of developing a comprehensive county-wide GI implementation and adoption plan that aligns GI solutions, municipal priorities and education strategies. The project will create a thorough assessment of municipal staff policy and management needs to create a municipal GI implementation guide, as well as a communications framework for municipalities to share the value and benefits of GI with their constituents. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.