Urban Land & Water

Urban Land & Water is a program that aims to reconnect urban communities with their natural environment including land and waterways. The program seeks to facilitate more efficient and effective use of our natural resources while promoting locally-led community revitalization efforts that focus on economic, social and environmental benefits. The program is true to Green Spaces Alliance’s Mission with a goal to sustain the natural environment and enhance urban spaces.

There are many interconnected elements of this program. Those elements include Urban Land Resources (i.e. urban land conservation, redevelopment of vacant lots, native and sustainable landscapes and urban agriculture) and Water Resources (i.e. water conservation, low impact development and green infrastructure, mitigation banking and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership).

The program can be broken in down into the following parts:

Urban Land Resources
Urban Land Conservation & Redevelopment
Native Landscapes
Urban Agriculture

Water Conservation
Low Impact Development & Green Infrastructure
Mitigation Banking
Urban Waters Federal Partnership

URBAN LAND & WATER INITIATIVES:

Conservation & Redevelopment

Like many parts of the US, San Antonio is urbanizing rapidly. The scattered pattern of low-density development consumes an excessive amount of land, fragments the landscape, displaces many native...

Native Landscapes

Natural beauty and improved wildlife habitat are some of the many wonderful benefits associated with native plants. Native landscapes are a necessary and vital component to the Upper San Antonio...

Urban Agriculture

Simply put urban agriculture is growing or producing food in a city or heavily populated town or municipality, such as San Antonio. We extend this definition to include community gardens but...

Water Resources

In 2012, Voters approved the funding of the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) has injected two-billion dollars of seed money to fund management strategies and capital projects. Of...

Low Impact Development and Green Infrastructure

The term low impact development (LID) refers to systems and practices that use or mimic natural processes that result in the infiltration, evapotranspiration or use of stormwater in order to protect...

Urban Waters Federal Partnership

Green Spaces Alliance is an official community stakeholder and partner of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership administered through the US Environmental Protection Agency. The Urban Waters...

Urban Land & Water – Related Issues

Growing urban sprawl and development in and around San Antonio can bring more than just air pollution — they bring “light pollution” and have been shown to have a detrimental impact on certain types...

An Urban Land & Water Video

A short video on GSA’s Urban Land & Water Programs

San Antonio Area Gardens Map

Green Spaces Alliance’s Community-Supported Gardening Program started in 2005 as a series of discovery meetings with a wide range of community stakeholders. Those meetings revealed a strong need for...

For more information, contact Jerry Hess, Community Gardens Intern: (210) 222-8430 ext. 310.