Assessment of green infrastructure performance through an urban resilience lens

Green infrastructure (GI) is widely recognized for reducing risk of flooding, improving water quality, and harvesting stormwater for potential future use. GI can be an important part of a strategy used in urban planning to enhance sustainable development and urban resilience. However, existing literature lacks a comprehensive assessment framework to evaluate GI performance in terms of promoting ecosystem functions and services for social-ecological system resilience. We propose a robust indicator set consisting of quantitative and qualitative measurements for a scenario-based planning support system to assess the capacity of urban resilience. Green Infrastructure in Urban Resilience Planning Support System (GIUR-PSS) supports decision-making for GI planning through scenario comparisons with the urban resilience capacity index. To demonstrate GIUR-PSS, we developed five scenarios for the Congress Run sub-watershed (Mill Creek watershed, Ohio, USA) to test common types of GI (rain barrels, rain gardens, detention basins, porous pavement, and open space). Results show the open space scenario achieves the overall highest performance (GI Urban Resilience Index = 4.27/5). To implement the open space scenario in our urban demonstration site, suitable vacant lots could be converted to greenspace (e.g., forest, detention basins, and low-impact recreation areas). GIUR-PSS is easy to replicate, customize, and apply to cities of different sizes to assess environmental, economic, and social benefits provided by different types of GI installations.