User:Yujunliu/sandbox

Green infrastructure appears at all scales, including regional, corridors for wildlife, city planning, and smart communities.

Urban forests

Forests in cities, also known as urban forests, are an important component of urban green infrastructure systems. Appropriate tree and vegetation species are needed instead of noxious and invasive kinds. Urban forests use native plant species, which reduce the need of maintenance and irrigation. In addition, native species also provide aesthetic value while reducing cost. Diversity of plant species should also be considered in design of urban forests to avoid mono-cultures. It would make the urban forests more durable and resilient to pests and other harms.
In the United States, a federal legislation known as The Energy Conservation Through Trees Act, authored by Congresswoman Doris Matsui of Sacramento, encourages residents to plant shade trees to reduce heating and cooling costs. (Move to Planning Approach section)

Benefits of urban forests:

• Energy Use: According to a study conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Sacramento Municipal Utility District, it was found that urban trees can provide up 47 percent energy savings.
• Urban Heat Island: Maximum air temperature for tree groves were found to be lower than that of open areas without trees. This is because of a process called evaporative cooling.
• Water Management:Urban forests helps with city water management on diverting storm water from water channels. Trees intercept a large amount of rainfall that hit them.
• Air Pollution:Trees hold carbon, which improve air quality in cities.
• Property Values:Having more trees increases property value, which suggests that people value greenery and trees wherever they are. This implicates that trees contribute to the preferred living conditions. Urban greenery can also improve mental health and well-being.

Constructed wetland

Constructed wetlands are manmade wetlands which work as a biofiltration system. They look like lands with wetland vegetation and mostly are build on uplands and outside floodplains. Constructed wetland are build this way to avoid connection or damage to natural wetlands and other aquatic resources.There're two categories of constructed wetlands: subsurface flow system and free water surface system. The potential harmful impacts, such as the alteration of natural hydrology and introduction of invasive species can be avoided by proper planning and operating.

Benefits of constructed wetland

• Constructed wetlands try to replicate natural wetlands’ ecosystems. They are build to improve water efficiency, water quality and create wildlife habitat by using natural processes of plants, soils and associated microorganism. In a wetland, vegetation can trap a part of suspended solids and slow down water flow; some other pollutants are processed by microorganisms lives there.
  

• Cost-effective: Wetlands have low operating and maintenance costs. They can also help with fluctuating water levels. Aesthetically, constructed wetland are able to add greenery to its surrounding environment. It also help reduce unpleasing odors of wastewater.

Green roof and green walls

Green roofs improve air and water quality while reducing energy cost. The plants and soil provide more green space and insulation on roofs. Green roofs also help reducing city runoff by retaining rainfall.

GIS applications

GIS - data collection. data representation. With this data, how can it be used to benefit modeling? aka data analysis.