Asset management for Green Infrastructure

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Outcomes

This project has successfully developed a Green Infrastructure Management Manual containing practical knowledge, supporting tools, tables and templates to assist councils with the management of their green infrastructure assets

This manual aim to enhance councils' ability to value, plan, and sustainably manage green infrastructure assets, ensuring their long-term availability and delivering cost savings through more efficient asset management.

Green Infrastructure Management Manual

The Green Infrastructure Management Manual (PDF 15.4 MB) provides comprehensive content to support councils in managing green infrastructure including:

• definitions
• green infrastructure services
• the asset and financial management process for green infrastructure; and
• details for 24 green infrastructure assets including images, drawings and details on relative risks, costs, values, lifecycle activities, and demand management.

The Manual is supported by a simple framework for including green infrastructure into asset management planning and plans, case studies, tools, summary tables and extensive links to additional sources of information.

The Manual aligns with all relevant ISO standards, is applicable globally, and will empower asset stewards to confidently integrate nature-based green infrastructure into their financial and asset management plans.

By including green infrastructure into mainstream asset management planning and plans, asset stewards can enhance the services they can provide, ensure their care is effectively resourced and funded throughout their lifecycle, build climate resilience, and reduce environmental impacts.

The Manual was developed with substantial stakeholder input and peer review and is written in accessible language and designed to meet the needs of a range of asset stewards including elected officials, CEOs, asset and financial managers, engineers, landscape designers, consultants, arborists and ecologists.
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Background and purpose

What is Green Infrastructure?

Nature-based, living green infrastructure includes street trees, green roofs and walls, parks and gardens, urban forests, community gardens, living shorelines, hybrid reefs, seagrass beds, saltmarshes and mangroves. It also includes water-sensitive urban design elements such as constructed wetlands, bio-swales and rain gardens.

Green infrastructure assets provide essential, cost effective, sustainable, climate-resilient ecosystem services for the land, water and coast. These services include the stabilisation of slopes and coastal foreshore, air and water quality improvement, flood mitigation, water storage, urban shading and cooling, biodiversity, enhanced human wellbeing and many more.

However, green infrastructure has not traditionally been included in asset and financial management plans – an omission that has often led to its neglect and degradation, and subsequent waste of the initial investment.

South Australian Council's role in Green Infrastructure

South Australian councils provide green infrastructure within their local areas. This helps support biodiversity, reduces urban heat, contributes and community wellbeing. Green infrastructure helps our state better manage the challenges of a changing climate and increased urban density.

Nature-based green infrastructure assets are managed by councils to provide essential, cost-effective, sustainable, climate-resilient services and other community wellbeing and environmental benefits.

There's been a lack of guidance about how green infrastructure assets are managed or included in asset management plans. This creates a risk on how investment and assets are best managed.

The development of the Green Infrastructure Management Manual provides councils with a best practice guide and an online learning program for councils to include, assess and plan for their green infrastructure assets.

Evaluation

The evaluation found that the Asset Management for Green Infrastructure project achieved its objectives. The project was completed on time, supported by established delivery methods, expert oversight and extensive stakeholder engagement.

More than 140 stakeholders contributed to the development of the Green Infrastructure Management Manual and online training course. The project also achieved strong online reach, as shown in the key statistics below.

Post-project feedback showed high satisfaction with the manual and early uptake across strategic and asset management plans, climate adaptation, natural disaster planning, asset registers, long-term financial planning, training and community engagement.

Respondents also highlighted the need for further training, long-term data and practical tools such as lifecycle costing, business case and climate resilience templates.

Key statistics

This project was shaped by:

• 140+ stakeholders
• 69+ workshop participants
• 90+ publications reviewed through the development of this project
• multiple project partners, including 13 councils and a range of industry stakeholders.

In the first six months since the project launch, the manual had:

• 7,400 project web page views
• 2,684 manual downloads.