TRACK 1, DAY 1
Green Infrastructure Within City of Toronto Right-of-Way – From Council Direction to Implementation
ABSTRACT
Green infrastructure plays a vital role for cities facing the challenges of urbanization, flooding and climate change. GI is a cost-effective, resilient approach to managing the impact of wet weather events that provides social, economic, and environmental benefits. GI may include natural heritage features and systems, parklands, stormwater management systems, street trees, urban forests, natural channels, permeable surfaces, and green roofs.
In October 2013, City Council directed the development of “GI for the public right-of-way” for implementation in capital projects. Subsequently a consultant was undertaken to develop GI standard drawings, construction specifications and guidelines for the types of green infrastructure that can be implemented within the right-of-way such as bioretention, swales and permeable pavement. The foregoing documents have been published on City of Toronto’s webpage.
In 2019 City Council declared a climate emergency and in 2020 the Toronto Office of Recovery and Rebuild (TORR) report on the roadmap towards recovery and rebuild affirmed the importance of building a resilient city that can adapt to various shocks and stressors, especially to the effects of climate change. To support scale up of Green Streets through the capital program and development led projects, a number of tools have been developed to implement green infrastructure more effectively.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Niloufar Mohajerani, City of Toronto
Niloufar Mohajerani is an Engineer with Stormwater Management Infrastructure unit within the City of Toronto. She is responsible for delivery of multi-million stromwater management capital projects including stream restoration and green infrastructure. Her projects encompass various phases of building an infrastructure from environmental assessment and geomorphic impact studies to design and construction.