ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on such green-infrastructure reclamation and regeneration strategies on roadways, sidewalks, parking surfaces, buildings/rooftops, corridors, and brownfields. It demonstrates how existing "gray" infrastructure can be retrofitted with green infrastructure and low-impact development techniques. Citizens are overwhelmingly accepting notions of global climate change and natural resource depletion and are increasingly exploring lifestyle changes that can, in some desperate attempt, reverse the damage people have inflicted upon the planet. Since the twentieth century was about leaving the mark on the landscape, the twenty-first century needs to be about reducing the mark on the landscape. Indeed, a paradigm shift needs to occur between the relationship of the natural and built environment. A different approach would be to examine the land and surrounding environment and formulate a design solution that minimizes destruction to habitat and open space and aesthetically fuses the structure with the surroundings.
