Green infrastructure is infrastructure

Trees, swales and soil do measurable engineering work. They deserve the same capital status as pipes and pavement.

When budgets tighten, planting is the first line item cut, because it is filed under amenity. That classification is an accounting error.

A mature street canopy reduces surface temperature by up to twelve degrees, extends pavement life, slows stormwater and demonstrably increases retail dwell time. Those are infrastructure outcomes with infrastructure returns.

The fix is procedural: put landscape into the civil budget, specify soil volume as rigorously as pipe diameter, and require canopy targets as a condition of approval.