The Importance of Natural Infrastructure: Building and Financing our Urban Future

Alumni - we welcome your participation in a Master Class in New York regarding natural infrastructure.

Natural infrastructure, such as forests, coral reefs and grasslands, generates both quantifiable and unquantifiable value to humans. Carbon sequestration, filtered water, stress relief and sense of community are just a few ways people benefit from this area of ecosystem services. In fact, healthy forests in the Catskills provide New York City residents some of the best tasting water in the country at a fraction of the cost of a traditional water treatment plant.

Natural infrastructure can also promote resilience from chronic stresses and acute shocks experienced in urban areas, which are alarmingly on the rise. Drawn from his class “Urban Resilience”, Professor Brad Gentry will discuss the role of natural infrastructure in creating cities that are more resilient and the financial mechanisms used to fund it.