Green Infrastructure in Practice

This report discusses the use of green infrastructure to reduce urban stormwater runoff in Atlanta, Georgia.

The City of Atlanta adopted an ordinance that requires all new development and redevelopment to manage the first inch of rainwater that falls on a site using green infrastructure in 2013. In the first six years after the ordinance was adopted, over 4,800 new green infrastructure practices at commercial and residential sites in the city were permitted. Since then, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has adopted green infrastructure requirements similar to Atlanta’s for all other Georgia cities and counties who operate Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems.

Using the City of Atlanta’s experience as an example, this report provides an introduction to green infrastructure, outlines the city’s approach to implementing the new requirements, and presents three recent developments as examples of typical projects that meet the new requirements. The objective of this publication is to provide a resource for anyone interested in green infrastructure, especially municipalities enacting policies that promote its use as a stormwater management strategy.