Abstracts

University of Washington Abstract Strategic Green Infrastructure Planning: A Geodesign-based Planning Support Approach Mary J. Roderick Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Robert Mugerauer Department of Urban Design and Planning Green infrastructure is increasingly utilized to improve and restore ecosystem function and ecosystem services in urban areas; however, it is often implemented in a piecemeal, opportunistic, single-purpose fashion. This dissertation uses the Steinitz geodesign framework to demonstrate a systematic approach for analyzing synergies and trade-offs between different types of green infrastructure across multiple scales and functions, a novel application of the framework, to enable strategic green infrastructure planning at the city scale. The focal geography and jurisdiction for this research is Seattle, WA. While regional or landscape-driven approaches (e.g. Puget Sound Regional Council, Puget Sound Partnership, WA Department of Ecology Watershed Resource Inventory Areas) to planning are important, the city scale affords the administrative, regulatory and financing mechanisms needed to implement green infrastructure programmatically across multiple infrastructure systems. By iterating through the geodesign framework, the complex picture of green infrastructure planning across multiple scales, functions, and departments with a broad range of requirements driven by many different influences is successively simplified to narrow in on a few key systems and questions. However, the geodesign process and outcomes should be transparent, collaborative and accessible to multiple groups of stakeholders. A further contribution of this dissertation is a detailed examination of the tools and technologies needed to cyber-enable the full spectrum of the geodesign framework. Tools like GeoPlanner and Geodesign Hub have already been developed to digitally support some of the analysis and modeling aspects of the framework, and technologies like web services and geoportals already exist to increase their flexibility and extend their data management and analytic capabilities. Other aspects like conceptual modeling, and structured participation methods for analytic-deliberative decision-making also have IT system precedents, but all of the existing tools and technologies need further development on the basis of a shared ontology for geodesign to realize the potential of a comprehensive, interoperable geodesign support system.Advisors/Committee Members: Mugerauer, Robert (advisor).