Practice Guide
Start Here
Begin the GI Practice Guide: understand the roadmap, the first-cycle AMP pathway and where to go next.
Overview
Purpose
This Practice Guide helps practitioners prepare Green Infrastructure Asset Management Plans for living, adaptive and multifunctional assets such as trees, wetlands, raingardens, remnant bushland, green roofs and coastal landscapes.
Use this page as your entry point. It explains how the Guide is organised, what a first-cycle AMP can realistically achieve, and where to begin.
What this Guide helps you do
The Guide provides a practical, step-by-step method for preparing AMPs for green infrastructure. It is designed for immediate use with existing council data, spreadsheets, templates, structured analysis and professional judgement. It does not depend on future digital tools, although the methodology is designed to support later modelling, AMP Builder and learning-platform functionality.
The method is structured around the LFA 3×3 Framework: nine Steps across three phases. Each Step helps you produce one part of the AMP, from asset registers and Levels of Service through to lifecycle strategies, cost forecasts, financial strategy and monitoring.
Core idea
Start with what you have
A first-cycle AMP does not need perfect data. It needs a defensible starting point, clear assumptions, honest data confidence and practical improvement actions.
A basic AMP that identifies significant assets, sets service targets and estimates lifecycle costs is more useful than waiting for a perfect dataset. Later cycles improve the evidence, refine the targets and strengthen the financial case.
Who this is for
This Guide is written for practitioners responsible for planning, managing, maintaining, funding or advising on green infrastructure. It is especially relevant to local government, but the method can also support consultants, agencies and organisations involved in GI planning, delivery and stewardship.
The main users are likely to include asset managers, parks and open space managers, landscape architects, urban planners, environmental specialists, stormwater and WSUD practitioners, finance officers and project managers.
How to use the Guide
Start with the roadmap
You do not need to read every detailed Step before you begin. Start with the roadmap, then move into the detailed Step pages as you need them.
The roadmap helps you understand the overall sequence:
| Phase | Steps | What you achieve |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 — Know Your Assets | Steps 1–3 | A clear picture of what assets you have, how they are performing, and what services they should deliver. |
| Phase 2 — Plan the Lifecycle | Steps 4–6 | A forward-looking plan for demand, lifecycle needs and risks under different future settings. |
| Phase 3 — Secure the Future | Steps 7–9 | A funded, governed plan with lifecycle costs quantified, financial strategy aligned and improvement actions identified. |
Then work through the Steps in sequence
The nine Steps are designed to be followed in order. Each Step builds on the one before it. The asset register prepared in Step 1 supports performance assessment in Step 2. The baseline from Step 2 supports Levels of Service in Step 3. The service targets then shape demand forecasting, lifecycle planning, scenario testing, costs, financial strategy and monitoring.
You can move quickly through a Step where the data is simple or already available. You can go deeper where the asset class, risk profile or funding decision requires more evidence. The sequence should remain stable even when the level of detail varies.
Use the detailed Step pages when you are doing the work
Each detailed Step page, listed in the left-hand navigation, is where you do that part of the AMP work. It provides the method, key decisions, tables, examples, checks and AMP-writing guidance needed to complete that part of the plan.
Use the Step pages when you are preparing the actual AMP. Use tools, templates, reference pages and case studies as support layers, not replacements for the Step method.
First-cycle AMP pathway
A first-cycle AMP is a real AMP
Not every council starts with complete registers, mature condition data or integrated financial systems. The Guide presents a recommended path that can scale to the data and capability available.
A first-cycle AMP produced with available information, stated assumptions and honest improvement actions is a credible and defensible first document. It is not a simplified version of the methodology. It is the first application of the same methodology at the organisation’s current maturity.
What a first-cycle AMP contains
A practical first-cycle AMP is usually concise, transparent and evidence-based. It should explain what is known, what is assumed, what is uncertain and what will be improved in the next cycle.
| AMP part | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Preamble | Document control, assumptions, limitations and executive summary. |
| Chapter 1 | Asset register summary, hierarchy and data confidence. |
| Chapter 2 | Condition assessment and baseline service statement. |
| Chapter 3 | Levels of Service framework with measurable targets. |
| Chapter 4 | Demand forecast and supply-gap analysis. |
| Chapter 5 | Lifecycle strategies and intervention priorities. |
| Chapter 6 | Funding scenarios and top risks. |
| Chapter 7 | Lifecycle cost forecasts, benefit summary and financial summary page. |
| Chapter 8 | Financial strategy and LTFP alignment. |
| Chapter 9 | Monitoring framework and improvement program. |
Each Step provides the guidance for writing the corresponding AMP chapter. Step 1 supports Chapter 1, Step 2 supports Chapter 2, and so on through to Step 9. The Preamble sits before the nine chapters and should be prepared as the professional wrapper for the AMP.
Each review cycle should improve data quality, refine targets and strengthen the financial case. The first AMP establishes the framework. Later AMPs deepen the analysis.
Use Optional Extensions only when they help
Some councils will have richer data, specialist analytical capability or a need for more advanced modelling. In those cases, the Step pages may include Optional Extensions covering deeper analysis such as quantified modelling, formal scoring methods, sensitivity analysis 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 a first-cycle AMP because every method, dataset or model is not yet available.
Before you begin
Prepare the AMP Preamble
Every AMP needs a professional wrapper before the technical chapters begin. The Preamble is not one of the nine methodology Steps, but it sets the context for the plan.
At minimum, the Preamble should include:
- document control, including version history, ownership, approvals and review cycle;
- key assumptions, such as cost base year, data currency and projection sources;
- limitations, including data gaps, confidence levels and how they affect the analysis;
- an executive summary that explains key findings, the recommended funding scenario and service implications.
Write the executive summary after you have completed the nine AMP chapters, because it needs to reflect the findings, recommended funding scenario and service implications developed through the full process.
Starter template
AMP Preamble starter structure
Use this starter structure to prepare the professional wrapper for the AMP before the nine technical chapters are completed. Update the Preamble as the AMP develops, and complete the executive summary after the Step work has produced the findings, funding scenario and service implications.
1. Document control and scope
- AMP title
- Asset class
- Responsible owner
- Version number
- Approval status
- Review date
- Boundary statement: what council owns, what it operates but does not own, and what it influences but does not control
2. Key assumptions
- Cost base year
- Data currency
- Condition assessment date
- Growth assumptions
- Climate or demand projections used
3. Limitations
- Known data gaps
- Data confidence issues
- Scope exclusions
- Assumptions requiring future review
4. Executive summary
- Asset class covered
- Current service position
- Main risks
- Recommended funding scenario
- Key improvement actions
Choose one asset class to start
For most councils, the first AMP should focus on one GI asset class. This keeps the plan clear, auditable and actionable.
Possible starting asset classes include:
- urban trees;
- wetlands and ponds;
- swales, raingardens and biofiltration systems;
- green roofs and living walls;
- remnant bushland;
- coastal dunes and foreshore reserves.
Portfolio-level integration happens later through financial strategy, reporting and the Long-Term Financial Plan.
Know why GI needs a different lens
Green infrastructure is living, adaptive and regenerative. Its performance depends on ecological processes, maintenance, climate, soil, water, surrounding land use and community value.
This means GI AMPs need more than a conventional replacement-cost view. They must explain the service potential the asset provides, how that service potential is sustained, what risks place it under pressure and what funding pathway is needed to maintain it over time.
Next steps
Continue to How to Use this Guide
You have now seen the purpose of the Guide and the first-cycle AMP pathway. Next, read How to Use this Guide to understand how the online Guide is organised, how to move through the Foundations and Framework pages, and how the detailed Step pages support AMP preparation.
After that, continue through the Foundations and the 3×3 Framework before beginning Step 1.
Next sequence
Start Here → How to Use this Guide → Core Foundations → 3×3 Framework → Step 1
Continue the Guide
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Start Here is public. A free account gives you access to the introductory Guide content, Core Foundation concepts and the 3×3 Framework.