Urban waterways as green infrastructure

Abstract

Green infrastructure can be considered as all-natural, semi-natural and artificial networks of multifunctional ecological systems within, around and between urban areas, at all spatial scales. In this chapter, the authors cover how different components of green infrastructure (GI) project management relate to environmental justice (EJ) issues. Some of the key questions that they raise are: In what ways does assessing benefits of restoration using standard economic measures fall short of EJ goals? In what ways does GI implementation reinforce existing dynamics and values versus transforming them? The authors then cover a review of ecosystem services that urban waterways can provide with an emphasis on cultural services, ways of assessing ecosystems service and some case studies of applied ecosystem service assessment of benefits as well as environmental justice impacts to urban waterway communities. They explores green infrastructure using the lens of environmental justice, identifying several challenges and limitations that arise in connection with the context of restoration projects.