Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities

In March of 2006, Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities by Mark A. Benedict and Edward T. McMahon, was published by Island Press. Those engaged in land conservation and management increasingly have come to envision and make use of a process that connects environmental, social, and economic health: Green Infrastructure. For the landscape designer, conservation minded planner, and concerned citizen, this incisive work presents principles and practices to create conceptual and real links in communities across the country.

The impacts of sprawl are felt everywhere: almost 2 million acres of farmland and half a million acres of private forestland are lost to development each year. But creating communities that protect open land and also provide homes and services for people is not impossible. Using a green infrastructure approach, community members can understand and ask how green space adds value, in a myriad of ways, to land development, and relate these findings to developing infrastructure plans. They can then prioritize conservation opportunities and plan development that meets the needs of both people and nature.

With illustrative and detailed examples, Green Infrastructure advances smart conservation: large-scale thinking and integrated action to plan, protect and manage our natural and restored lands. Providing both the historical framework for the importance of greenways and green space networks, and practical advice on how to design and implement them, Benedict and McMahon’s book is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to understand innovative approaches to conservation-minded land use. From the individual parcel to the multi-state region, Green Infrastructure helps us look at the landscape in relation to the many uses it could serve, for nature and people, and determine which use achieves the most benefit for both.