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Measuring True Impact of Green Stormwater Infrastructure Projects Just Got Easier with New Interactive Platform
A new hub of resources with in-depth guides and user-friendly calculator helps practitioners quantify and communicate the benefits of GSI projects.
Media Contacts
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Kathleen McFadden
Media Relations Manager
The Nature Conservancy
Phone: 610-368-7108
Email: k.mcfadden@tnc.org
The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange and One Water Econ, today unveiled the GSI Impact Hub, a digital suite of resources for municipalities, urban planners, and policymakers in the U.S. and Canada to quantify the benefits of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI).
The first-of-its-kind GSI Impact Hub is free to use and offers an interactive calculator to analyze the multiple benefits, or co-benefits, that GSI projects can present at a local level. The GSI Impact Hub also includes an expansive range of educational guides that break down the industry’s leading evidence-based literature in one place and offer guidance on how to maximize co-benefits via project siting, design, and funding strategies.
GSI Impact Hub
A digital suite of resources for municipalities, urban planners, and policymakers in the U.S. and Canada to quantify the benefits of green stormwater infrastructure.
Green stormwater infrastructure refers to a suite of practices used to manage stormwater runoff in ways that mimic the natural environment. Plants, soil and stone are strategically placed to filter stormwater where it falls rather than diverting into sewer systems, which can be prone to overflows. GSI practices may include installing rain gardens, green roofs, trees, rain barrels, and/or bioswales.
Many cities throughout the U.S. and Canada are adopting GSI methods to reduce polluted stormwater runoff and flooding, meet water quality requirements, mitigate the urban heat island effect, and create jobs that boost the local economy.
“Many urban landscapes have not been designed with nature in mind, and GSI is a powerful tool that can help us integrate green spaces back into these environments to better adapt to our changing climate,” said Julie Ulrich, Director of Urban Conservation at The Nature Conservancy in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Quote: Julie Ulrich
We know that nature-based solutions like GSI can be transformational to communities everywhere. Our hope for the GSI Impact Hub is that it empowers more cities and towns to invest in these green approaches, which will create healthier, more resilient urban environments for both people and nature.
Director of Urban Conservation, TNC PA/DE
Green stormwater infrastructure
Plants, soil and stone are strategically placed to filter stormwater where it falls rather than diverting into sewer systems, which can be prone to overflows.
© Kevin Arnold
The Power of GSI
Many urban landscapes have not been designed with nature in mind, and GSI is a powerful tool that can help integrate green spaces back into these environments.
© Shutterstock
Unlike conventional gray infrastructure approaches, which include gutters, sewers, and pipes, GSI comes with many added economic, social, and environmental co-benefits that advance a community’s livability and its overall resilience to climate change, including by reducing the risk of extreme heat and flooding. With proper maintenance, GSI’s stormwater management and associated benefits can increase over time as plants become established and grow, thereby appreciating in value. GSI can also be paired with gray infrastructure to increase the capacity of existing systems and extend its useful life.
The GSI Impact Calculator comprehensively analyzes potential GSI projects, allowing users to input specific data and customize scenarios to reflect local conditions.
“The GSI Impact Calculator empowers decision-makers to assess the benefits and costs of GSI early in the project planning process, helping to ensure economically viable solutions from the outset,” added Janet Clements, Owner & President at One Water Econ.
With the calculator, users can run GSI scenarios that assess how a proposed project contributes to 12 associated financial, social, and environmental benefit categories, including energy savings, job creation, improved water and air quality, higher property values, heat mitigation, and recreation.
"As we note in our Framework of GSI Practice, building buy-in from elected officials and decision-makers is key to advancing any green stormwater infrastructure program,” said Barbara Hopkins, Executive Director of the Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange. “The new GSI Impact Hub will enable GSI practitioners to make a convincing case, quantifying and communicating the multiple benefits of their projects in any easy-to-read report."
For more information, visit gsiimpacthub.org.
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The Nature Conservancy is a global conservation organization dedicated to conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends. Guided by science, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that nature and people can thrive together. We are tackling climate change, conserving lands, waters and oceans at an unprecedented scale, providing food and water sustainably and helping make cities more sustainable. The Nature Conservancy is working to make a lasting difference around the world in 81 countries and territories (40 by direct conservation impact and 41 through partners) through a collaborative approach that engages local communities, governments, the private sector, and other partners. To learn more, visit nature.org or follow @nature_press on X.