Green Stormwater Infrastructure

Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) is a nature based solution to stormwater issues. Stormwater runoff is slowed, utilized, and/or treated in ways that mimic nature's processes, creating healthy environments. A GSI design can be highly engineered, or as simple as a back yard rain barrel. Rain gardens, planter boxes, and trees are among the strategies used in GSI street  designs. GSI provides many environmental, social, and economic benefits such as improved water and air quality, water conservation, and habitat/planted areas. GSI is economical too - rather than hard-piping stormwater to a treatment plant, it is treated naturally, in place. GSI systems help create water resilience by protecting against flooding, reducing stress on potable water supplies, reducing heat island and sequestering the CO2 that causes climate change. In this GSI overview document (attached) you will find a collection of examples from the Columbia River Gorge, and a few far-away places.