Program on the Environment

Green infrastructure is an approach that can mitigate storm-water runoff – and the pollution it can bring to our waterways – in an environmentally friendly way. Improving online tools used in green infrastructure and increasing community engagement could help generate an increase in green infrastructure used around the region. The aim of this study was to research the challenges and opportunities of green infrastructure and the online tools used in the field to increase community engagement. I interned with Stewardship Partners, a nonprofit organization working to create people-based solutions to engage the community in the Puget Sound region to care for the environment. I worked on their Sound Impacts tool, an online metrics portal that shows different green infrastructure projects on a map. My main duty was to create and send out a survey to Sound Impact users asking for feedback of the tool. I also conducted a literature review, where I examined different online tools used in green infrastructure. From my research and surveying, I found issues of accessibility, usability, and a lack of metrics that made it difficult for users to engage with these tools. From allowing public access of data, to creating a base framework that can be used throughout different green infrastructure tools, these concerns can be improved through multiple means. In order to reach and engage a larger community, these issues must be addressed so that people working in different fields will be able to connect to green infrastructure and help reduce the effects of storm-water runoff.