Green Infrastructure is the interconnected network of open spaces and natural areas that naturally recharges aquifers, improves water quality and quantity, and provides recreational opportunities and wildlife habitat. Green infrastructure manages stormwater by capturing raindrops where they fall. CNT encourages reuse of natural moisture by using rain gardens, swales, green roofs, tree planting, permeable pavement and other low impact approaches to restore natural drainage functions and recycle stormwater in urban environments.
CNT’s Natural Resources work is rooted in the belief that if we change land use and investment patterns—capture water where it falls instead of building expensive treatment facilities—we can save money, have more reliable systems and create more benefits for people and places. Areas of focus include developing tools to map and analyze the values of green infrastructure, researching and demonstrating stormwater best management practices (BMPs), and promoting changes in local, regional and national policy.
Learn more about our green infrastructure strategies by reviewing our projects, tools and publications through the links on this page.
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
CNT’s Green Infrastructure research and demonstration projects are moving into their final planting and monitoring season. Read about our current activities and the state of last year’s work.
Monitoring
Over the past year, CNT has been working with our partners, City of Chicago Departments of Environment (DOE) and Water Management (DWM), the Village of Bellwood, the Illinois EPA, the U.S. EPA and GreenCorps Chicago to set up Green Infrastructure demonstration projects. Beginning again this spring, the sites are being monitored for performance characteristics regarding infiltration and runoff reduction.
The goals of these projects were to construct and monitor the performance of different Green Infrastructure Best Management Practices (BMPs). The data collected from each site will be used to advocate for greater reliance on Green Infrastructure as a sustainable solution to stormwater problems.
Bellwood
The research site in Bellwood consists of two rain gardens that receive runoff from the same roof, designed to compare the efficacy of native plants’ absorption of stormwater versus the absorption capacity of turf grass. Rainfall data and the performance of each rain garden is obtained with an on-site rain gauge and two monitoring wells and a soil moisture meter in each garden. Monitoring began in October 2007, equipment was removed in November to prevent damage from freezing, and is ready for monitoring now beginning this spring.
Read more in the Case Study.
St. Margaret Mary Church and School
Three kinds of Green Infrastructure BMPs were created in this project to relieve flooding during heavy periods of rainfall: a bioswale, two rain gardens and two patches of permeable pavement. Each of the two rain gardens at St. Margaret Mary has a different soil profile in order to compare the performance of different designs. Rainfall data and the performance of the bioswale and rain gardens will be measured through an on-site rain gauge and two monitoring wells and a soil moisture meter in each of the three BMPs. Like the Bellwood site, monitoring will start again this spring.
Read more in the Case Study.
Our Lady Gate of Heaven
This project’s vegetated swale was designed to drain nearly half of the parking lot, intercepting stormwater from the pavement before it reaches the sewer system. The vegetated swale at Our Lady Gate of Heaven Parish is designed to be typical of a bioswale located in a parking lot. Rainfall data and the performance of the bioswale will be measured through a rain gauge, three monitoring wells, and a soil moisture meter. Monitoring will begin again this spring.
Read more in the Case Study.
Outreach
With research well underway, we are now focusing on the demonstration aspect of the projects. CNT is working with the community groups based around each research site to choose multiple locations in their area to build rain gardens. These high-profile, functional landscapes will show the community the beauty of native vegetation and the ease of constructing a small-scale rain garden. CNT is kicking off the planting season with demonstration gardens in Chicago’s South and West sides, and a community planting day in Bellwood. Check back for more photos from our community rain garden projects and information on a volunteer opportunity in your neighborhood!
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Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Established in 1992 by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, World Water Day aims to raise awareness of the importance of clean water to public health. According to the UN, an estimated 85 percent of global diseases can be attributed to unclean or unsafe water supplies; this disproportionately affects children in developing countries, 5,000 of whom die every day from such causes as parasites and diarrheal diseases that could be prevented by access to safe water.
What can you do to celebrate World Water Day and become a more conscious water user? It’s as simple as turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth, or using a rain barrel to water your lawn & garden, or just taking a shorter shower. For lasting infrastructural change, people who own property can also:
Dig a rain garden to retain & filter runoff, so that water can permeate naturally
Install a green roof on your building. Green roofs help conserve and filter water, as well as countering the urban heat island effect and providing a beautiful garden environment in the city.
Plant trees, which capture & filter rainwater, in addition to improving air quality.
Dig a larger cistern to conserve rainwater for non-drinking uses.
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Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
CNT continues to create natural open space in urban environments and raise awareness about the potential for community greening. The latest project is at the Saint Margaret Mary Church and School in Rogers Park, on Chicago’s north side. On October 18th, students and parishioners worked with Green Corps to plant almost 500 native Illinois prairie plants in the main parking lot of the church and school. The ‘green infrastructure’ was blessed and officially dedicated by St Margaret Mary’s priest, Father Jim Barrett, on October 28th.
And as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai declared, while speaking at the recent dedication of another CNT garden project at the Al Raby High School, “it is this type of activity that should be replicated a billion times throughout the world.”
The Green Infrastructure research and demonstration project, funded by the U.S. EPA, is a partnership with the City of Chicago to gather engineering and soil data on the performance of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) that use the power of plants to absorb and clean rainfall runoff. The gardens were built with Green Corps, a City-sponsored community landscaping and job training program. CNT will use these features to demonstrate how green infrastructure can fit into attractive neighborhoods and improve local drainage problems.
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