Green infrastructure development has become a priority for many city governments seeking to address urban environmental challenges. This approach invo...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Green infrastructure development has become a priority for many city governments seeking to address urban environmental challenges. This approach involves integrating natural systems like parks, tree-lined streets, and rooftop gardens into city planning. For instance, Philadelphia's Green City, Clean Waters program uses green infrastructure to manage stormwater while creating recreational spaces. Urban planning experts suggest that in addition to providing environmental benefits, green infrastructure projects strengthen community ties by offering residents shared spaces for recreation and social interaction.
Which choice identifies an assumption underlying the urban planning experts' argument about community ties?
Cities that invest heavily in green infrastructure typically spend less on traditional gray infrastructure like pipes and concrete.
Residents will actively use the shared recreational spaces created by green infrastructure projects.
Environmental engineers prefer working on green infrastructure projects more than conventional water management systems.
Green infrastructure requires more maintenance and community involvement than traditional urban development approaches.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Green infrastructure development has become a priority for many city governments seeking to address urban environmental challenges." |
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| "This approach involves integrating natural systems like parks, tree-lined streets, and rooftop gardens into city planning." |
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| "For instance, Philadelphia's Green City, Clean Waters program uses green infrastructure to manage stormwater while creating recreational spaces." |
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| "Urban planning experts suggest that in addition to providing environmental benefits, green infrastructure projects strengthen community ties by offering residents shared spaces for recreation and social interaction." |
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Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Green infrastructure serves both environmental and social functions by creating shared spaces that experts believe strengthen community connections.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes that cities are investing in green infrastructure for environmental reasons, defines what this involves, shows a real example of dual benefits, and then presents expert opinion that these projects also build community ties through shared recreational spaces.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The experts argue that green infrastructure projects "strengthen community ties by offering residents shared spaces for recreation and social interaction."
- For this argument to work logically, what must the experts be assuming?
- The experts assume that residents will engage with these spaces, not ignore them.
- They assume that using shared spaces leads to social interaction and stronger community bonds.
- So the right answer should identify the assumption that residents will actually use and benefit from these shared recreational spaces.
Cities that invest heavily in green infrastructure typically spend less on traditional gray infrastructure like pipes and concrete.
- This discusses spending comparisons between green and traditional infrastructure.
- The experts' community ties argument doesn't depend on cost comparisons.
- This addresses budget allocation, not whether shared spaces will strengthen community bonds.
Residents will actively use the shared recreational spaces created by green infrastructure projects.
- This directly identifies the key assumption: that residents will actively use the shared spaces.
- The experts' argument only works if people actually use these recreational areas.
- Without resident usage, shared spaces can't strengthen community ties.
Environmental engineers prefer working on green infrastructure projects more than conventional water management systems.
- This focuses on engineers' preferences about project types.
- The community ties argument doesn't depend on what engineers prefer to work on.
- This is about professional preferences, not community outcomes.
Green infrastructure requires more maintenance and community involvement than traditional urban development approaches.
- This addresses maintenance and community involvement requirements.
- While potentially relevant to implementation, this doesn't identify an assumption underlying the community ties argument.
- The experts' claim about shared spaces strengthening bonds doesn't depend on maintenance levels.