The term "green infrastructure" is being applied at a wide range of landscape scales, from regional conservation networks to residential rain gardens. Fundamentally, green infrastructure is a planning framework for recognizing the valuable services that nature provides.
A green infrastructure network helps protect land and nearshore resources that support healthy plants and animals, clean air and water, and natural spaces for people to play.
It is also a tool that can help local communities become more resilient to natural hazards and adapt to climate change.
The cover story of this edition of Coastal Services provides a valuable overview of green infrastructure.
To learn more about green infrastructure and how to apply geographic information system (GIS) tools, methodologies, and analyses when conducting this planning process, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center co-teaches a GIS Tools for Strategic Conservation Planning course with The Conservation Fund.
To register go to www.csc.noaa.gov/training/gis_tools.html.
Because conserving land is such an important tool in efforts to address climate change, the NOAA Coastal Services Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are working together with The Nature Conservancy and Land Trust Alliance to better understand the needs of conservation organizations in the face of issues such as sea level rise and coastal inundation.
This partnership will move forward the development of a coastal climate fellow, which will provide local and regional land trusts with tools, data, and best practices.
NOAA is also partnering with the U.S. Geological Survey to demonstrate the value of collaboration to further adaptation to the impacts of a changing climate on the nation’s important coastal areas. This partnership will address the needs of national, regional, and local coastal decision makers.
NOAA is committed to working with decision makers across the public and private sectors who are planning now to prepare for, mitigate against, and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
