We’re thrilled to announce that Nitsch’s work on the Boston Green Infrastructure Handbooks won a 2025 National Recognition Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. This project previously won a Silver Award from ACEC Massachusetts. Both awards recognize Nitsch for our approach to developing guidance that supports the long-term success of green infrastructure through location-specific planning, design, and maintenance, in collaboration with the Boston Water and Sewer Commission.
With urban environments facing increasing challenges from climate change, the Boston Green Infrastructure Planning and Design and Operations and Maintenance Handbooks serve as vital resources for property owners and the community. Developed by Nitsch Engineering with the Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC), these Handbooks provide comprehensive guidance on implementing and maintaining green infrastructure (GI) solutions to enhance stormwater management and improve the city’s resilience.
In response to a Consent Decree with the Conservation Law Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce phosphorus levels in the Lower Charles River Basin, the BWSC has emphasized the use of GI and Low Impact Development (LID) techniques. With little property of their own on which to implement GI and LID solutions, the BWSC sought to inspire property owners to integrate solutions into their projects.
The Planning and Design Handbook, issued in 2021, provides guidance for public and private property owners on implementing GI techniques throughout Boston. It introduces GI, its benefits and co-benefits, and offers a toolkit as a reference guide. The Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Handbook, published in 2024, serves as a companion piece that provides detailed (and illustrated!) maintenance guidance, inspection checklists, and roles and responsibilities for maintaining GI installations.
Both Handbooks are specifically tailored to address the needs of the City of Boston: rather than providing generic GI solutions as many other manuals do, these identify issues that are specific to Boston, the different types of GI that can help combat them, and how groups can implement these techniques. Together, the Handbooks offer an integrated approach to help:
- Improve water quality
- Address inland flooding
- Mitigate sea level rise
- Replenish groundwater
- Reduce urban heat island effect
- Enhance habitat and transportation connectivity
The Handbooks emphasize the social benefits of GI, particularly for vulnerable communities, and the economic benefits of long-term maintenance to prevent costly interventions. They also highlight the creation of green jobs and the sustainable benefits of GI in mimicking natural hydrologic cycles.
The Boston Green Infrastructure Planning and Design and O&M Handbooks – which are free to read and available to the public on the BWSC’s website – provide a comprehensive and user-friendly resource for implementing and maintaining GI in Boston. Together, they provide the guidance necessary to transform the implementation of GI in the City of Boston – and they serve as a model for other cities to develop their own tailored GI guidelines to build resilient communities in the face of climate change.