Asset Management for Green Infrastructure

IPWEA is collaborating with a group of organisations to develop best practice guideline and an online training course to provide asset stewards with the knowledge, tools and frameworks needed to include nature-based Green Infrastructure into their strategic, asset and financial management planning.

About

Nature-based Green Infrastructure assets include street trees, water sensitive urban design elements and living shorelines. They provide essential, cost effective, sustainable, climate-resilient services for the land, water and coast including slope and coastal dune stabilization, sediment capture, air and water purification, flood mitigation, water storage, urban shading and cooling. They also provide a range of additional biodiversity, ecosystem and human wellbeing co-benefits. However, they are often overlooked in public asset and financial management plans, leading to their neglect and degradation.

The incorporation of Green Infrastructure into mainstream asset management has the potential to increase the uptake of nature-based assets, ensure their care is effectively resourced and funded, enhance the services they can provide, build climate resilience and reduce impacts to the environment to support more liveable, sustainable and resilient communities.

Green Infrastructure

Practice Note 15 - Asset management for green infrastructure

Practice Note 15 - Asset management for green infrastructure is a best practice guideline supported by an online training course with an industry recognised micro-credential. It includes a range of green infrastructure assets, including street trees, green roofs and walls, parks and gardens, urban forests, community gardens, living shorelines, hybrid reefs, seagrasses, saltmarshes, mangroves, and water-sensitive urban design features such as constructed wetlands, bioswales, and rain gardens.

It provides asset stewards with the knowledge, tools and frameworks needed to include Green Infrastructure into their strategic, asset and financial management planning. Guidance is provided on valuation and condition assessment methodologies; co-benefits; service provision; demand management; lifecycle analysis; risk assessments; long-term strategic and financial management planning; costs; threats; case studies; decision tools and templates.

The Practice Note will be available in draft form in June 2025, with the final release accompanied by an online training course later in 2025.

Asset Management For Green Infrastructure Workshop

On 21st March project sponsors and stakeholders gathered in Adelaide and online to conduct a workshop informing the content and inclusions for the Practice Note. With more than 20 attending in person and 45 online, the workshop represented a meeting of the minds and provided significant input to the creation of the Practice Note.

Green Infrastructure

Asset Management for Green Infrastructure Webinar

IPWEA, in conjunction with Landscape Federation of Australia and Active Green Services delivered this event live in April 2024 and is available to view as a recorded webinar session. Find more about this webinar by clicking on the button below.

View Webinar

Course Details

Format: 1 hour webinar
Date: Thursday July 18
Time: 19:00 - 20:00 (AEST)

Free for IFME Members.

Presentations Topic Areas

Definitions and descriptions of Green Infrastructure assets and the range of services they provide;
The values and benefits of Green Infrastructure;
The key elements of asset management and two current examples of asset management plans for Green Infrastructure
Q&A session with our key presenters.

Closed Captions Available:

To ensure an inclusive experience for all attendees, Closed Captions are available in multiple languages during our Zoom sessions. You can activate them by clicking the "CC" button once you join the session and selecting your preferred language from the Subtitle Settings.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this course participants will be able to:

Define Green and Blue Infrastructure
Understand the services Green Infrastructure can provide
Outline the Green Infrastructure options for coasts, water and land
Explain the values and benefits of Green Infrastructure
Reflect on the challenges and costs for Green Infrastructure
Understand the principles of how to integrate Green Infrastructure into asset and financial management plans

Applying a tried and trusted asset management framework to green infrastructure is the key. This seminal Practice Note aims to bring a diverse but related set of professionals together to provide practical steps and a shared vocabulary on implementing green infrastructure solutions.

It is applicable internationally and is what many of our members and broader public works community have been asking for.

David Jenkins | CEO IPWEA

Presenters

Jacqui Balston

Director of Sustainability | IPWEA

Dr. Balston has been an Applied Climate Scientist for the past 25 years and has researched the impacts of climate variability and climate change on agriculture, natural resources, ecosystems and the built environment.

She currently works as Director of Sustainability for IPWEA and is a member of the South Australian Government Climate Science Advisory Committee. She is also Director of Jacqueline Balston & Associates and provides local, state and federal governments and other organisations with climate change and sustainability advice. Previously she was climate change advisor to the South Australian Local Government Association and the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Group.

Jacqui Hansen

Senior Advisor Asset Management | IPWEA

Jacqui Hansen is a consulting civil engineer with 25 years’ experience in local government. She specialises in Asset Management and for 15 years has provided consulting services to local government, helping Councils to improve asset management practices and develop meaningful asset management plans. Her focus has always been the needs of regional, rural and remote communities. She brings her real-life experiences to the team.

Chris Champion

Chris Champion | Facilitator

Secretary General | International Federation of Municipal Engineering (IFME)

Chris Champion is the former long-time CEO of IPWEA Australasia. He is a Past National President and Chair of the Board of Engineers Australia. Chris is the current Secretary General of the International Federation of Municipal Engineering (IFME). However, his current passion is as a Director on the Board of the Landscape Foundation of Australia (LFA). LFA exists to protect, restore, and enhance natural environments within Australia’s cities and towns. Chris sees natural asset management and green infrastructure as a real opportunity to progress this cause within local government.

Our Partners

AGMI sponsors

The Asset Management for Green Infrastructure project is a collaboration between the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA), South Australian Coastal Councils Alliance (SACCA), Water Sensitive SA (WSSA), the Landscape Foundation Australia (LFA), Arboriculture Australia, Living Shorelines Australia, Green Adelaide and the Australasian Green Infrastructure Network and South Australian Councils. The project has been funded by IPWEA, project partners and the Local Government Research and Development Scheme administered by LGA South Australia.