Practice Guide
How to Use this Guide
Understand how the GI Practice Guide is organised, how the nine Steps work, and how to use the platform to prepare a Green Infrastructure Asset Management Plan.
Overview
Purpose
This page explains how to use the GI Practice Guide as an online implementation manual.
The Guide is designed to help practitioners prepare Green Infrastructure Asset Management Plans in a structured, evidence-based and practical way. It is not intended to be read as a blog, a loose collection of articles or a conventional technical report. It is a working guide for preparing an AMP.
What this page explains
Use this page to understand:
- how the online Guide is organised;
- how the Foundations, 3×3 Framework and nine Steps relate to each other;
- how each Step helps write the corresponding AMP chapter;
- how to use first-cycle guidance and Optional Extensions;
- how to use the left-hand navigation, right-hand page navigation and support resources;
- and how to begin preparing the AMP without waiting for perfect data.
Core principle
Use the Guide as a workflow
The Guide is structured around the work required to prepare an AMP. Each Step produces evidence, decisions and writing outputs that feed the next Step.
Use the pages in sequence when preparing the AMP. Use reference pages, tools, templates and examples to support the work, not to replace the Step method.
How the online Guide is organised
The online platform has four main layers:
| Layer | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Start Here | Introduces the Guide, the first-cycle AMP pathway and where to begin. |
| Foundations | Explains the concepts needed to use the method well, including why GI is different, service potential, data confidence and financial/value reasoning. |
| 3×3 Framework | Shows the full method: three phases and nine Steps for preparing the AMP. |
| Detailed Step pages | Provide the implementation guidance, tables, checks, examples and AMP-writing support for each Step. |
Using the Guide
Start with the structure
Before entering the detailed Step pages, first understand the structure of the Guide.
The Foundations explain the concepts that sit behind the method. The 3×3 Framework shows the whole workflow. The left-hand navigation then lets you move through the Guide in sequence.
This matters because the Guide is not organised simply by topic. It is organised around the practitioner workflow needed to prepare an AMP.
Work through the Steps in sequence
The nine Steps are designed to be followed in order.
Each Step creates information that the next Step depends on. Step 1 establishes the asset register. Step 2 assesses current condition and performance. Step 3 defines Levels of Service. Later Steps use that evidence to forecast demand, plan lifecycle responses, test scenarios, quantify costs, prepare the financial strategy and monitor improvement.
Implementation chain
Assets → performance → Levels of Service → demand → lifecycle strategy → scenarios → costs and benefits → financial strategy → monitoring
You may move quickly through a Step if the data is simple or already available. You may need more detailed work where the asset class is complex, the decision is significant or the data is weak. The sequence should remain stable even when the level of detail varies.
Use each Step to write the AMP
Each detailed Step page helps write the corresponding AMP chapter.
| Guide Step | AMP chapter supported |
|---|---|
| Step 1 — Identify & Record Assets | Chapter 1 — Identifying our Assets |
| Step 2 — Assess Asset Performance | Chapter 2 — Asset Performance |
| Step 3 — Define Levels of Service | Chapter 3 — Levels of Service |
| Step 4 — Forecast Service Demand | Chapter 4 — Demand Forecasts |
| Step 5 — Develop Lifecycle Strategies | Chapter 5 — Lifecycle Strategies |
| Step 6 — Test Scenarios and Risk | Chapter 6 — Scenarios and Risk |
| Step 7 — Quantify Costs and Benefits | Chapter 7 — Costs and Benefits |
| Step 8 — Prepare the Financial Strategy | Chapter 8 — Financial Strategy |
| Step 9 — Monitor, Review and Improve | Chapter 9 — Monitoring and Improvement |
The Preamble sits before these chapters. It provides document control, assumptions, limitations and the executive summary. The executive summary should be completed after the nine chapters have been prepared, because it needs to reflect the findings of the full process.
Use available data and record confidence
The Guide is designed to work with the information available to the organisation now.
Many councils will begin with incomplete registers, mixed condition data, uncertain unit rates or limited benefit evidence. That does not prevent a first-cycle AMP from being prepared. It does mean the AMP must be honest about data confidence, assumptions and limitations.
Where data is weak, record the limitation and convert it into an improvement action. This makes the AMP more credible, not less credible.
Use Optional Extensions only when useful
Some Steps may include Optional Extensions for more advanced analysis. These may include deeper modelling, formal scoring methods, sensitivity analysis, detailed financial treatment or integration with specialist systems.
Optional Extensions are not required for a useful first-cycle AMP. Use them where they improve decisions, but do not delay the AMP because every optional method is not yet possible.
Using the platform
Use the left-hand navigation
The left-hand navigation shows the main structure of the Guide. It is the best way to move between Start Here, Foundations, the 3×3 Framework and the detailed Steps.
Use it to keep your place in the overall workflow. The left-hand navigation remains at Guide and Step level. It does not expand into every internal heading within a Step page.
Use the right-hand page navigation
The right-hand navigation shows the main headings within the page you are reading.
Use it to move around long pages without losing your place. On detailed Step pages, it helps you move between the main parts of the guidance, such as the overview, method and completion sections.
Use tools, templates and examples as support
Tools, templates and worked examples help you apply the method. Use them alongside the Step pages so that the practical outputs remain connected to the reasoning, assumptions and decisions behind them.
For example, an asset register template may help you build the Step 1 output, but the Step 1 page explains why the fields matter, how confidence should be recorded and how the register feeds later Steps.
Use Foundations as reference pages
Foundation pages explain concepts that recur across the Guide. These include service potential, data confidence, why GI is different from conventional grey infrastructure, and how financial and value reasoning should be treated.
When a Step relies on one of these concepts, the relevant Foundation page can provide the deeper explanation. This keeps the Step pages focused on the work while still giving access to the underlying reasoning.
Before you begin
Choose the asset class
Begin with one GI asset class. A first-cycle AMP should usually focus on a defined asset class rather than the entire GI portfolio.
Choose an asset class that is material to service delivery, risk, public value or organisational need. Urban trees, wetlands, raingardens, biofilters, remnant bushland, coastal assets or green roofs may all be appropriate depending on the council context.
The Practice Guide recommends preparing a standalone AMP for each GI asset class, such as one AMP for urban trees and a separate AMP for constructed wetlands. This keeps the scope clear, the register manageable, the lifecycle costs specific and the service levels auditable.
Portfolio-level aggregation happens later, particularly through Step 8, where cost forecasts and funding requirements are consolidated for the Long-Term Financial Plan and corporate reporting.
Where a council prefers service-based or integrated infrastructure plans, the same framework can still be used as a structured GI module within that broader plan, provided the asset class, service objectives, cost responsibilities and data confidence remain clear.
Set up the AMP Preamble
Before writing the technical chapters, set up the AMP Preamble. This gives the document its professional wrapper and provides a place for document control, assumptions, limitations and the executive summary.
Use the AMP Preamble starter structure on the Start Here page as your initial template. It covers document control, asset-class scope, boundary statement, assumptions, limitations and the executive summary. The AMP Writing section will later provide fuller drafting guidance.
Do not finalise the executive summary at the start. Complete it after the nine chapters have been prepared.
Prepare your working files
Before starting Step 1, create a simple working folder for the AMP.
At minimum, prepare:
- a working AMP document;
- a blank spreadsheet or working file for the asset register you will begin building in Step 1;
- a folder for source data;
- a folder for tables, figures and maps;
- an assumptions and data confidence log;
- and a running improvement action list.
These do not need to be sophisticated. They need to be organised, traceable and easy to update as the AMP develops.
Move to Foundations
After reading this page, move to Foundations to understand the concepts that support the method.
Then continue to the 3×3 Framework to see how the nine Steps fit together before beginning Step 1.
Next sequence
How to Use this Guide → Core Foundations → 3×3 Framework → Step 1
Continue the Guide
Create a free account to access the Core Foundations and 3×3 Framework.
The public pages explain how the Guide works. A free account lets you continue into the Core Foundations and 3×3 Framework before deciding whether your organisation needs implementation access.