User:Jruhbc/Green infrastructure

History of green infrastructure
Green Infrastructure as a term did not appear until the early 1990s, although ideas of Green Infrastructure had been used long before that. The first coined use of the term was seen in a 1994 report by Buddy MacKay, chair of the Florida Greenways Commission, to Florida governor Lawton Chiles about a Green Infrastructure project undertaken in 1991: Florida Greenways Project. MacKay states, "Just as we carefully plan the infrastructure our communities need to support the people who live there—the roads, water and electricity—so must we begin to plan and manage Florida’s green infrastructure”.

Ancient China
Chinese literary gardens are an example of a sustainable lawn that showcased natural beauty in suburban areas. These gardens, dating back to the Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BC), were designed to allow native plant species to thrive in their natural conditions and appear untouched by humans. This created ecological havens within the city.

8th Century BC - 1st Century BC
Greece was an early adopter of the concept of green Infrastructure with the invention of Greek agora. Agoras were meeting spaces that were built for social conversations and allowed Greeks to converse in public. Many were built across Greece, and some incorporated nature as a design aspect, giving nature a space among the public.

15th Century
During the height of the Renaissance, public areas became more common in new cities and infrastructure. These areas were carefully selected and would often be urban parks and gardens for the public to converse and relax at. Other than social uses, urban parks and gardens were used to improve the aesthetic of the urban environment they were present in. Urban spaces had environmental uses for the implementation of fresh air and reduced urban heating.

17th Century - 18th Century
Green Infrastructure can be traced as far back as the 17th century in European society beginning in France. France used the presence of nature to provide social and spatial organization to their towns. Originally, nature in cities was used to provide social areas to interact, and plants were grown in these spaces to provide food in close proximity to the inhabitants. In this period, Large open spaces were used to provide a calm setting that could give "sites of power with sites of sanctity" across France. These sites were used by the French elites to bring rural country town house beauty to their new urban houses in a showcase of power and elaborate display of wealth. The French implemented many different types of infrastructure throughout the 17th century that involved incorprating nature in some shape or form. Another example would be the use of promenades that were used by the french elites to flee the unhealthy living conditions of the cities and to avoid the filthy public areas available to the common folks. These areas were lushes gardens that had a wide vareity of vegetation and foliage that kept the air clean for the wealthy while allowing them to relax away from the poorer members of the french society. Again, Mathis goes on to state, "The first cours [or promenades] were established in the capital at the instigation of Marie de Medici: the Mail de l'Arsenal (1604) and above all the Allée du Cours-la-Reine (1616), 1300 mètres long and lined with elms, running along the Seine, from the Tuilenies Garden to the high ground of Chaillot.". Establishing the use of nature as a symbol of power and achievment amongst french royalty and the common people at the time.

Keeping and making cities green were at the forefront for city planners in France. They were always incorprating design elements of a blend between urbanism and nature. Forming a relationship that showcased how the french grew alongside nature and always had it be a key aspect of their expansion.

In 18th Century France, Citizens were able to request to have old and battered city walls destroyed to make room for new gardens, vegetation sites, and green walkways. This opened up new areas to the city landscape and allowed for expansion of the city outside of the prevouis walls and incorprated greenery into the new areas where the walls were torn down. Along with this, the town hall as well as the city center would be elabortly decorated wtih different types of trees, espically rare and unique species that had been brought from other countries, and vegetation. Mathis goes on to state, "A French-style garden is linked to the town hall to male the view of it more sublime", showing the use of foliage as a way to impress and beautify French cities.

19th Century
In 1847, a speech by George Perkins Marsh called attention to negative human impacts such as deforestation. Marsh later wrote Man and Nature in 1864 based on his idea for conserving forests. Around the same time, Henry David Thoreau’sWalden of 1860 discussed preservation of nature and applied these ideas to urban planning saying, “I think every town should have a park,” and stated the “importance of preserving some portions of nature herself unimpaired.” Frederick Law Olmsted, a landscape architect, agreed with these ideas and planned many parks, areas of preserved land, and scenic roads, and in 1887, The Emerald Necklace of Boston, MA. The Emerald Necklace is a system of public parks linked by parkways that serves as a home to diverse wildlife and provides environmental benefits such as flood protection and water storage.

In Europe, Ebenezer Howard led the garden city movement to balance development with nature. He planned agricultural greenbelts and wide, radiating boulevards surrounded by trees and shrubbery for Victoria, England, so that as the city grew, the needed ‘gifts of nature’ would also be retained.

The US government became more involved in conservation and land preservation in the late 1800s. This was seen in the 1864 legislation to preserve the Yosemite Valley as a California public park, and 8 years later, the United States’ first national park.

20th Century
Many industrial leaders in the 19th century had the goal of increasing worker's quality of life through quality sanitation and outdoor activity, which would in turn create increased productivity in the workforce. These ideas carried into the 20th century where efforts in green infrastructure were seen in industrial parks, integrated landscaping, and suburban gardens.

The Anaconda Copper Mining Company was responsible for environmental damage in Montana, but a refinery in Great Falls saw this impact and used the surrounding land to create a green open space that was also used for recreation. This natural haven included a golf course, flower beds, picnic areas, a lily pond, and pedestrian paths.