Green infrastructure resource guide

This resource guide is aimed at providing USAID practitioners involved in the planning and development of sustainable infrastructure projects with a better understanding of green infrastructure (GI) and identifying GI interventions that can be integrated into USAID projects.

Recognizing the importance that GI plays in sustaining ecosystem services such water resources conservation, flood and stormwater management, groundwater recharge, water supply, and disaster resilience, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has identified the need for guidance in planning and design of GI solutions.

The first section of this guide, Introducing Green Infrastructure, presents the definition of GI in the context of USAID’s activities and priorities, describes how GI can be used to help communities adapt to human induced and environmental stressors, and introduces the twelve benefits that are associated with GI interventions. These benefits identified at the bottom of this page and associated icons are used throughout the resource guide to aid in comprehension.

Following this introductory section, a series of GI interventions are introduced to address the following topics or issues:

1. Groundwater recharge for water security
2. Water retention and detention for water supply and ecosystem maintenance
3. Erosion control
4. Urban stormwater management
5. Rural flood mitigation
6. Pollution abatement
7. Resilience to drought
8. Reduced urban heat island effects
9. Building energy efficiency
10. Food security
11. Managing soil and slope stabilization after wildfires.