Online Framework for Evaluating the Multiple Benefits of GSI projects

Many communities implement green infrastructure projects to enhance water quality and reduce stormwater flooding, while not focusing on the health, social, and economic impacts, or co-benefits, which can result from the enhanced environment created by the projects. And just as the focus of the projects is primarily environmental, so then is the impact evaluation of those projects, which is usually restricted to water quality and flooding levels. Whether these co-benefits are mentioned as an afterthought or touted as a way to add value to the green infrastructure, many in the public and private sector struggle with adequately evaluating these benefits. There is no standard for what benefits to measure or how to measure them. To help support and foster more evaluation of green infrastructure projects, the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) is developing an online, interactive, user-friendly Green Infrastructure Evaluation Framework, intended to provide park and allied professionals with guidance on evaluation methodology and process for measuring and evaluating the multiple benefits of green stormwater infrastructure installations in parks and other public spaces using evidence-based metrics. The framework provides a collection of short and long-term co-benefits that can be measured without a large budget or a lot of experience with evaluation.