December 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 14

RESEARCH
NRPA's Green Infrastructure
Evaluation Framework
By Kevin Brady

ark and recreation departments have the power to improve community resilience through their vast network of parks and open
space. To further these efforts, in 2015, NRPA launched the
Great Urban Parks Campaign, which promotes the use of green
stormwater infrastructure (GSI) to reduce flooding in local parks, while
also making many other positive benefits to their communities. NRPA also
created the Green Infrastructure in Parks resource to help park and recreation
professionals implement GSI in their park systems.
What was missing was how to
measure the impact of that work.
Specifically, how does green infrastructure affect not only the natural
environment of communities, but
also the health and even local economy surrounding the GSI?
NRPA's Green Infrastructure
Evaluation Framework (www.

nrpa.org/gi-framework) does just
that. This online resource gives
park professionals the tools and information they need to evaluate the
community benefits of their GSI
projects in parks over the short and
long term. Clicking through three
easy steps of defining your project
goals, collecting data and using

Benefit

Details

Environmental

% Water: Reductions in flooding; enhanced water quality
% Air: Improved air quality and reduced temperatures
% Habitat: Restored and/or expanded green space; flourishing of
native plants and pollinators and removal of invasives

Health

% Physical health: Better access to exercise opportunities
% Mental health: Reductions in stress through enhanced exposure to
green space

Social

% Public safety: Decrease in criminal activity in restored areas
% Social cohesion: Enhanced social connections among park users
% Community engagement: Residents' involvement in the project
process and overall engagement with the park department

Economic

% Workforce development: Job training and skills development for
local residents involved in project
construction
% Economic development: Increased local business activity and
property/rental values

Parks & Recreation

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that data for messaging your results, the framework will give you a
detailed measurement plan and an
approach for how to use the data.

A Look Inside the
Framework
The framework makes data collection on the ground easy and practical through three key steps, each
with text, downloadable tools and
other resources.
Step 1: Define your benefits and
measures. This first step clarifies
the benefits a GSI project may
bring to a park and the surrounding
community, and what your agency
should focus on measuring over
time. Beyond the flood-reduction
benefits of green stormwater infrastructure, GSI can also produce
many other results, as illustrated in
the chart on the left.
Step 1 provides an overview
of how GSI and green space in
parks produce the previously
mentioned benefits. Your agency
will have the information needed
to determine what a GSI project
may accomplish, and where your
agency would like to focus your
measurement. For example, if a
GSI project involves replacing
the cracking, gray surface under
a playground with permeable
pavement, you not only want to
measure reductions in stormwater runoff near the playground,
but also whether children and
families are using the playground
more often over time.

December 2019 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2019 - Parks & Recreation