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A framework for climate-resilient communities
Shifting infrastructure towards life
While infrastructure may call to mind industrial objects built by technical experts, living infrastructure can be thought of as a practice that respects and facilitates the dynamic processes at the core of all life.
Gray and gray-green infrastructures have often overlooked and undermined the relationships and natural systems that form the backbone of healthy communities and ecologies. This has manifested as states building highways through the middle of historically Black neighborhoods, utilities erecting dams that block salmon from their ancestral spawning grounds, and fossil fuel companies running carbon capture pipelines that rupture, poisoning rural communities and wildlife.
So while living infrastructure may incorporate certain gray and gray-green technologies, it will always pair them with social and ecological practices grounded in equity, reciprocity, and community participation. For example, Magic Johnson Park uses “hard” infrastructure to divert runoff into a balanced, communal ecosystem that improves water quality in South L.A. and seeks to repair a legacy of pollution and extraction.
By acknowledging that built, natural, and social systems are inextricably linked and ever-changing, living infrastructure practitioners can infuse infrastructure with a spirit of cooperation and adaptation that stands to benefit all life.
Unprecedented climate funding is going to infrastructure
Today, an influx of federal and local funding for climate projects presents a pivotal opportunity to build infrastructure that fosters social equity and ecological care.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal marks the single largest investment in built and natural systems in American history, including more than $50 billion to address droughts, heat, floods, and wildfires. Similarly, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act provides over $3 billion for Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants and $4 billion for drought mitigation, among other funding for integrated infrastructure projects.
In Los Angeles, funding initiatives like the four infrastructure measures generate nearly $1.6 billion for projects related to stormwater management, housing and homelessness services, parks, and transportation projects.
These efforts reflect a broad and growing commitment to build infrastructure that meets community needs. Yet if these projects neglect to work with and for living systems, they run the risk of repeating history.
A framework built for living systems
Recognizing this opportunity to embrace the practice of living infrastructure in a changing climate, our team asked: How can we design infrastructure that heals our places, nurtures the full potential of our communities, and helps us thrive in partnership with the living world? This question led to the development of the Living Infrastructure Framework.
This framework does not introduce new concepts, but integrates the wisdom of Indigenous, environmental, climate, and social justice organizations in communities across history and cultures. The framework seeks to make these approaches more explicit and practical to support a paradigm shift from life-destroying to life-creating systems.
The Living Infrastructure Framework invites us to honor place, grow participation, embody justice, foster resilience, and regenerate life.
From theory to practice - The Living Infrastructure Field Kit
A free tool for L.A. residents to plan and fund local projects
Accelerate Resilience Los Angeles (ARLA) and Spherical collaborated with several L.A.-based partners to develop the Living Infrastructure Field Kit as a starting point for L.A. residents. The Field Kit is a free tool for envisioning and planning local living infrastructure projects and securing the funding to get these ideas off the ground.
The Living Infrastructure Framework serves as a guiding resource for creating projects within the field kit.
Anyone can create living infrastructure
The beauty of the Field Kit is that it’s for everyone, not just engineers and city planners. It starts with an idea and a group of collaborators.
The tool can be used to map out a community garden, turn a vacant lot into a neighborhood resilience hub, or even get ideas for a multi-year renovation project like Magic Johnson Park. Teams might choose to focus on schoolyards, parks, green streets, resilience plans, or urban forestry.
One area with unique potential is stormwater
Water conservation, reuse, and infiltration are all part of L.A.’s broader approach to reducing water imports and achieving greater self-sufficiency.
In 2018, L.A. County residents approved a property tax commonly called “Measure W” that now generates nearly $300 million a year for localized stormwater management projects. Residents can use the field kit to participate in this effort and propose uses for these funds, with communities leading the way in planning stormwater solutions.
Beyond the field kit
More than one tool's capacities are needed to create a successful project. Living infrastructure is a dynamic practice requiring ongoing reflection and evaluation.
Ultimately, the aspiration behind the Living Infrastructure Field Kit is to play a practical role in a broader, necessary paradigm shift towards infrastructure that is just, localized, and alive.
Ready to start co-designing?
