Mapping coastal resilience: Precision insights for green infrastructure suitability

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Urban Planning
• Geospatial Analysis

Background:

• Climate change necessitates effective flood risk mitigation and urban resilience strategies.
• Green infrastructure (GI) offers a promising approach to address these challenges in urban environments.
• Existing methods for identifying GI suitability may lack flexibility and scalability for diverse urban contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate a cloud-computed Green Infrastructure Suitability Index (GISI) methodology.
• To map the suitability for GI implementation at street and landscape levels within a metropolitan planning area.
• To provide a data-driven foundation for urban planning and sustainable development.

Main Methods:

• Development of a cloud-computed GISI methodology integrating remote sensing and geospatial modeling.
• Synthesis of land cover, biophysical variables, and flood exposure data.
• Application of the GISI methodology in the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO), North Carolina.

Main Results:

• Identification of suitable areas for GI implementation, with residential parcels comprising 91% of the total.
• Quantification of highly suitable areas for street-level GI (7.19%) and landscape-level GI (1.88%) within the WMPO.
• Demonstration of the GISI methodology's flexibility, robustness, and transferability across different geographic contexts.

Conclusions:

• The GISI methodology provides a scalable and adaptable tool for identifying optimal GI locations to enhance urban resilience.
• Integrating GI into residential urban landscapes can significantly bolster ecosystem and community resilience to climate change impacts.
• The findings offer a transferable, data-driven foundation for local and regional planning efforts in sustainable urban development.