An Evaluation of Local Comprehensive Plans Toward Sustainable Green Infrastructure in US

Hyun Woo Kim and Tho Tran
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Hyun Woo Kim: Department of Urban Policy & Administration, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 22012, Korea
Tho Tran: Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University, Langford A308 TAMU 3137, College Station, TX 77843, USA

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-21

Abstract: The benefits of green infrastructure have been verified at the site-level by many empirical studies. However, there is limited understanding of how local governments prepare and implement green infrastructure planning in practice. This study employs the content analysis method to examine the quality of local comprehensive plans regarding sustainable green infrastructure in 60 municipalities of the United States. The study uses regression analysis to explain the variance of plan quality. Study results indicate that key green infrastructure principles were not fully incorporated in the existing sampled plans, with average score of 19.6 out of 50. While plan quality scores were slightly higher in counties than in cities, both areas could significantly improve plan quality with detailed policies, action strategies, and implementation tactics for green infrastructure planning and management. Regression analysis further identified that planning capacities, as well as socio-economic characteristics of study area may impact overall plan quality. The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of incorporating detailed green infrastructure principles whenever local planners adopt or amend regional plans in order to improve plan quality and to support implementation.

Keywords: green infrastructure; plan quality evaluation; content analysis; environmental planning; urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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