Green Infrastructure
Progress
The Use Green Infrastructure to Protect Environmentally Sensitive Areas and Integrate Nature Into the City Priority Program seeks to improve environmental, recreational, and transportation functions and improve the connection between people and the environment. This Priority Program addresses a key Imagine Austin goal of integrating nature into the city. Green infrastructure, as broadly defined in Imagine Austin is “strategically planned and managed networks of natural lands, parks, working landscapes, other open spaces, and green stormwater controls that conserve and enhance ecosystems and provide associated benefits to human populations.”
The Green Infrastructure Priority Program Implementation Team (GIPPIT) was chartered with the goal of managing Austin’s urban and natural ecosystems in a coordinated and sustainable manner. The GIPPIT objectives are as follows:
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Continue public investment in green infrastructure
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Incentivize and/or require private investment in green infrastructure
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Maximize ecosystem function and services provided by green infrastructure on city-owned land
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Improve inter-departmental collaboration and coordination in the management of city-owned lands
Program Champion:
Erin Wood
Departments: Watershed Protection, Planning and Zoning, Development Services, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Austin Water, Austin Energy, Office of Sustainability, Austin Fire, Real Estate Services, Austin Transportation
New Green Infrastructure Resources
City staff launched a new web portal that helps introduce the concept of green infrastructure and serves as a streamlined, user friendly gateway to city data and resources. The website is divided into eleven major topics: Introduction, Urban Forest, Water Resources, Parks, Wildlands, Trails, Green Streets, Food, Habitat, Landscape, and Land Management. Using the ArcGIS Online Story Map format, the website walks through each topic in greater detail with a description of key plans, programs, and regulations; a map of relevant data; links to additional resources; and a list of ways for the community to get involved. This tool is part of a larger response to a 2017 Council Resolution that called for the development of an Integrated Green Infrastructure Plan.
To help inform the development of an Integrated Green Infrastructure Plan, City staff worked with local environmental planning firm, Siglo Group, to take stock of the city’s current green infrastructure and identify existing strengths and gaps. There is much work being done around green infrastructure across city departments and this was the opportunity to bring all that data together, allowing staff to look holistically at the city’s complete portfolio of green infrastructure and recognize synergies, additional needs, successes to grow, and problem areas to improve. The final report looks at green infrastructure with a new set of lenses, including equity, health, resilience, climate change, biodiversity, economy, smart development, and mobility and connectivity. Additionally, an atlas of new maps was created based on a series of green infrastructure metrics and overlays, as identified by a multi-departmental advisory group.
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Adoption of the PARD Long-Range Plan
The Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) has finalized its long-range planning effort to guide the development and growth of Austin’s park system. PARD’s Long Range Plan for Land, Facilities and Programs—Our Parks, Our Future—was adopted unanimously by the Austin City Council on November 14, 2019. PARD's Long Range Plan is developed every 10 years and provides a blueprint to guide land acquisition, capital improvements, and the development of programs and new amenities. Our Parks, Our Future is funded in part through contributions from the Austin Parks Foundation.
The future of Austin’s park and recreation system is impacted by a multitude of forces, trends, and shifts, including unprecedented population growth, increasing reliance on private and philanthropic funding, and the emergence of best practices in sustainable park development and management. The planning effort began with an inventory and evaluation of parks and facilities, an analysis of demographic data, and trends and industry standards for parks. Public outreach played a critical role throughout the process with in-depth engagement of citizens, park supporters, conservancies, neighborhood associations, nonprofit organizations, and public partners. The result is a blueprint to guide the growth and development of Austin’s park and recreation system for the next 10 years.
Key recommendations in the plan related to green infrastructure include:
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Add at least 4,000 acres of new parkland over 10 years to serve future generations;
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Increase natural areas to support immersive nature experiences and improve environmental resource management;
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Use parks as functional landscapes to provide green stormwater infrastructure benefits;
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Increase community gardens in parks and improve local access to fresh food (reducing pesticide use, reducing carbon footprint of food supply);
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Give priority to connecting the green and blue network through land acquisition and easements to reduce gaps in the system (e.g., development of greenbelts along stream corridors); and
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Explore opportunities for increasing parkland conservation in the eastern part of the city, within the Blackland Prairie ecoregion as an area that has experienced increasing development pressure along with increasing flash floods, storm damage, and soils susceptible to shrinking and swelling in dry weather conditions.
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Public engagement event for the Our Parks, Our Future plan
Incorporation of Natural Systems into the Climate Plan
In 2015 the Austin City Council adopted the Austin Community Climate Plan which set an ambitious target to reach net-zero community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Since then, great progress has been made but the need to lower emissions is more urgent than ever and the Office of Sustainability has been spearheading a Climate Plan Update, to be completed in the fall of 2020. A notable addition to this plan update is a section for Natural Systems. These recommendations look at opportunities to protect, restore, and expand our natural lands, working lands, tree canopy, and urban public lands while prioritizing equity, enhancing resilience, and maximizing co-benefits. Natural systems are one of the few ways to achieve “negative emissions” by capturing, removing, and storing carbon from the atmosphere, known as carbon sequestration. They are also a unique strategy for climate change mitigation because they provide a variety of other benefits to communities related to health and wellness, quality of life, ecological health, and safety and resilience.
Cities Connecting Children to Nature Program
Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) is a national initiative that seeks to create more equitable and abundant access to nature in cities through a partnership between the National League of Cities and the Children & Nature Network. CCCN-Austin, one of 18 cities accepted into the cohort, has four strategies (Green School Parks, Nature Play, Youth Leadership, Early Childhood) in which to focus these efforts. Major achievements last year included:
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Completion of Wooldridge Elementary Green School Park
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Installed elements include trees, nature play space, outdoor classroom, nature trails, wildflower meadow with split-rail fencing, access to riparian area.
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Nature Play wood elements were harvested sustainably from urban trees that would have normally been sent to become mulch.
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The rain garden is multiuse as it helps hold water on site, prevents erosion on the track, and becomes interesting slopes for the kids to be active and have imaginative play on.
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Community engagement and design development for five new park installations, which will also feature sustainably harvested trees for nature play features, tree planting, landscape restoration, and green stormwater infrastructure.
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant received to study the effects of green infrastructure installed at Barrington Elementary Green School Park on health and climate.
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St. David’s Foundation grant received to install nature-based play using reclaimed wood at Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park
Children playing on a nature-based playscape at Wooldridge Elementary School
Green Jobs Training
The Park Ranger Cadet Program is a green jobs training initiative. This program is a collaborative effort with Austin Independent School District’s Akins High School and the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department to build outdoor leaders that reflect the community we serve. The Cadet Program creates a pathway to employment with parks, nature programing, and natural resource management. Students take a yearlong course and have the opportunity to work with the City of Austin Park Ranger Unit as a paid summer intern. Ultimately this program works to increase racial equity in outdoor careers by collaborating with participants to harness their own power to be leaders and stewards for Austin’s parks and communities. Students receive training in conservation, environmental science, racial equity, diversity, inclusion, and leadership. Over the years, park ranger cadets have secured full-time employment in a variety of conservation jobs within the City of Austin as well as with local conversation partners such as the Nature Conservancy and the Texas Conservation Corps at American Youthworks.
]In addition, the Innovation Office recently created an Equitable Green Jobs Grant program in partnership with the Sustainability Office, Equity Office, and the Economic Development Department to learn more about the green jobs landscape in Austin; learn more about effective and equitable workforce development approaches for historically underserved communities; and fund novel programs aimed at creating organizational partnerships and connecting residents with green jobs.
View the Equitable Green Jobs Grant program here.
Training event for the Park Ranger Cadet Program
Challenges
Virtual Green Infrastructure
COVID-19 shifted the way that Austinites live. To help Austinites continue to enjoy and be connected to outdoor spaces, the city created a variety of virtual programs. These opportunities allow individuals to enjoy nature while sheltering in place. You can now take virtual hikes on different nature preserves around Austin, including Zilker and Blunn Creek. In addition, virtual programming and educational resources from Urban Forestry, Watershed Protection, and the Parks and Recreation Department help provide new ways to explore and understand Austin’s natural world.
2020 Annual Report
Integrating Community Agriculture and Green Infrastructure
The Watershed Protection Department (WPD) is researching the potential to use a portion of the Lower Onion floodplain buyout area for agriculture projects that bring benefits to the community. Agriculture projects can promote health and resiliency for residents who live nearby. There are many types of agriculture projects that offer diverse benefits, including: access to healthy, affordable, culturally-relevant food, youth leadership development, nature-based science education, intergenerational mentorship, and green jobs training. Preliminary community outreach in 2018, as the buyout project wrapped up, demonstrated that the community supported this type of use.
We want to know:
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Is it safe to grow food at this site?
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What types of crops could be grown, considering that the site will likely flood?
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What management practices would promote the success of projects and good stewardship of the creek ecosystem?
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How can WPD ensure that historically marginalized Austin residents benefit?
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What is the level of community interest in leading or participating in agriculture projects?
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What can we learn from similar projects in other cities?
In addition to answering these questions, we plan to further this discussion with the Dove Springs community and connect to interested organizations through the release of a Request for Information (RFI). If our research shows that agriculture is an appropriate use for the buyout area, WPD will look to the Austin community to propose projects through a Request for Proposals (RFP) process.
Community garden at the Bayton Loop floodplain buyout area