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 Population Density Greenspace and Parklands Today Watersheds: Boundaries of Slope Waste and Watersheds: The Deep Tunnel
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 Milwaukee County Greenspace, Parklands and Environmental Corridors: 1997Like any natural area, individual greenways and parks serve an ecological function simply because they often protect natural areas. But their real strength is evident when they are seen as a system of interconnected passageways, barriers and filters for a variety of animal and plant life. Especially important are green spaces adjacent to rivers and streams. Called riparian corridors, they often include a diversity of habitats—aquatic, riparian, and upland—within a small area.This web of green passageways and connected islands can be seen in this current map of Milwaukee County. Here the base map shows the parklands and larger green spaces (including cemeteries) found throughout Milwaukee County. Superimposed is a complex of yellow markings which roughly designate environmental corridors as determined by the 1997 assessment of southeast Wisconsin by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC). SEWRPC designates environmental corridors as those "areas in the Region in which concentrations of natural resource elements occur." These natural resource elements include: lakes, rivers and streams, associated shorelands and floodlands, wetlands, woodlands, prairie, wildlife habitat areas, existing parks and open space, natural and scenic areas and vistas.
Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission An early pioneer of green mapping and environmental corridor understanding is Philip H. Lewis, Jr. See his book: Tomorrow by Design: A Regional Design Process for Sustainability. Also see Greenways 1936
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