Land Use and Green Infrastructure Scorecard
The Land Use and Green Infrastructure Scorecard guides municipalities through a review of local plans, policies, and municipal practices to illuminate opportunities to better protect water resources. The goal of the scorecard is to help municipalities protect water resources while maximizing the additional community benefits available through green infrastructure, including flood mitigation, public health, and climate resilience.
Local government staff can use the Scorecard to improve their understanding of how local plans, policies, and practices impact water resources and ecosystem services. The Scorecard cuts across multiple departments and scales within a jurisdiction (municipal, neighborhood, and site), to ensure that these plans, policies, and practices work together to protect water resources.
This Scorecard is an update to the previously named Water Quality Scorecard, which was developed in 2009. This updated Scorecard builds on the original tool by adding more information about community engagement and equity, climate change, and the broad benefits of green infrastructure.
The scorecard is intended for municipalities of various sizes in rural, suburban, and urban settings, including those that have combined sewers, municipal separate storm sewers, or limited or no stormwater infrastructure. It can help municipal staff, stormwater managers, planners, and other stakeholders better understand where a municipality's land development regulations and other ordinances might present barriers or opportunities to implementing a comprehensive approach to protecting water resources.