Title

Using Green Infrastructure to Alleviate Poverty and Promote Healthy Communities: Legal and Policy Solutions for the Urban Environment

Comments

Working paper submitted via Expresso, April 1, 2009

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Around the world, green solutions are being used to enhance environmental health, aesthetics and human well-being in communities. "Green solutions" may manifest as physical green infrastructure improvements such as green roofing, rain barrel and rain garden installations and the use of permeable street paving materials, as well as green socio-political policy innovations such as open space preservation, investment in alternative energy sources as well as the development of sustainable buildings and sustainable communities. These important investments in green infrastructure, however, are often not concentrated in areas with distressed and income limited populations. This Article explores the benefits of and barriers to green infrastructure implementation in under served urban areas, and discusses how green investments can improve quality of life in all communities. In particular, this Article demonstrates how green urban investments can help alleviate poverty by providing green jobs and reducing economic and social burdens associated with urban living, such as high food costs and crime. This Article advocates for policy and institutional changes to maximize the use of green infrastructure in new and retrofit development, and stresses the advantages of concentrating a portion of these environmental and aesthetic investments in low-income areas.