What is GSI?
Green Stormwater Infrastructure, or GSI, creates tiny green spaces that soak up rainwater where it falls to help reduce pollution from flowing to the river. Instead of going down the storm drain, the captured rainwater recharges the soil which brings much needed water to plants that create shade for people and habitat for wildlife.
GSI is more than an approach, it is the actions or structures you can install that leverage the power of living, natural systems to provide us with many benefits. These features include directing rainwater to desert adapted trees and other plants for its most efficient use, saving our clean tap water for drinking and other household needs.
Why you should try GSI!
Create more green space
GSI irrigates trees, shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers supporting a lush desert-friendly landscape that creates habitat for birds, pollinators and other wildlife.
Cool down pedestrian areas
GSI helps grow the cooling shade of nature’s air conditioner, promoting an active lifestyle that improves health and wellness for us humans.
Improve air + water quality
GSI improves air and water quality by naturally filtering our pollutants and supports healthy soils, reducing erosion and improving nutrient availability for plants.
Ways to Implement GSI
Rainwater Harvesting Basins are shallow depressions in the soil where rainwater can collect and infiltrate into your soil. This reduces flooding and holds water in the soil to be used by plant roots as an extra source of free irrigation. These features can also be called rain gardens.
Bioswales are gradually sloping channels that move rainwater from one place to another, such as from a gutter downspout to a basin and include plants. Wide and gentle-sloped swales with rock and grasses also help slow down and soak up more water.
Pollinator Gardens are landscaped areas of locally adapted trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers that can use rainwater harvesting such as basins, swales, and other features as their primary source of irrigation. Native plants support pollinators and other wildlife, cool the environment, and improve our communities while saving drinking water for other uses.
Rain Barrels, also called Cisterns, collect and store rainwater from rooftops for future use. This water can be used to irrigate trees, plants, and even veggie gardens without depleting the drinking water of our communities. Pair a rain barrel with a nearby basin or swale so that “overflow” during heavy storms is captured in the soil to save all that nature provides, maximizing your rainwater harvesting at home.
GSI at all scales
GSI is a critical strategy for climate adaptation and resilience efforts in arid cities. Utilizing GSI alongside traditional gray stormwater infrastructure in arid cities can help conserve water resources while providing a wide range of social and environmental benefits to a community. These benefits are compounded when many distributed features are implemented through a city, on both public and private land.
