Green Infrastructure for Cities: Planning, Design and Implementation

About this course

Urban flooding, polluted runoff, and rising heat are no longer “rare events”; they’re weekly headlines in many cities. Meanwhile, traditional grey infrastructure is costly, disruptive, and often sized for yesterday’s climate. So what do you do when your streets flood, your waterways fail water-quality targets, and your capital budget is already stretched? This course shows how green infrastructure (GI) and nature-based solutions can deliver urban stormwater management and climate adaptation benefits together, with practical examples you can apply. You’ll explore the complete GI toolkit, including rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs, permeable pavements, urban trees, and infiltration systems, and learn how they function as green stormwater infrastructure. Step by step, you’ll cover decision-making across municipalities, the roles of planners, engineers, utilities, and consultants, plus the design principles that keep projects credible. Expect a clear view of performance goals, site constraints, and data that support better choices, such as rainfall intensity, soils, topography, and drainage networks. You’ll also tackle maintenance planning and community buy-in early. Because even the best design can fail at the approval stage, you’ll dig into policy frameworks, governance, and legislation that support GI, including regulatory tools tied to low-impact development and regional planning. You’ll examine real-world outcomes, from improved water quality and reduced flood risk to cooler neighborhoods and stronger public spaces, while also learning what can go wrong and how to prevent it. By the end, you’ll be ready to evaluate proposals, shape standards, and build scalable GI programs for sustainable, resilient cities. Enroll now and turn runoff problems into greener urban wins.