Municipal Undergreening: Framing the Planning Challenges of Implementing Green Infrastructure in Marginalized Communities

Abstract

Green infrastructure (GI) remains a critical tool for addressing and managing environmental risks and hazards, yet its implementation and maintenance remains highly uncertain and inequitable. From the perspectives of climate and environmental justice, GI has repeatedly been shown to entrench inequity through uneven (quality and distribution) implementation (Hendricks et al., 2018; Hendricks & Van Zandt, 2021). Following literature on “municipal underbounding” (Durst, 2014; Mukhija & Mason, 2013), we propose the concept of “undergreening” to express the systematic reluctance of municipalities to incorporate and provide green infrastructure in communities of color. In this commentary, we identify four axes upon which undergreening manifests within planning. These four axes reflect several approaches to examining undergreening such as distributive injustice, but also expand traditional GI approaches to include procedural and relational issues affecting its implementation. From this, we conclude with four sets of questions and provocations to expand planning perspectives on GI and address planners’ roles in undergreening.