Chapter 3: Thinking Ecosystems, Providing Water: The Water Infrastructure Imperative

Abstract

Land use laws, such as comprehensive plans, site plan reviews and zoning codes, have important consequences on infrastructure necessary to provide critical services. As currently drafted, many of those laws rely largely on conventional “gray infrastructure” in which the manufactured, engineered, built environment is viewed as the primary, if not sole, means to provide essential public services. Given the age and status of the existing gray infrastructure, the added pressures to infrastructure from climate change, and the importance of core services such as transportation and the provision of potable water, this essay explores emerging systems that incorporate the greening of gray infrastructure to reduce costs and serve as adaptive models for an uncertain future.

Keywords: ecosystems, water infrastructure