The bioregional leap. A collaborative pact for the watersheds of Los Angeles

The Emerald Necklace Expanded Vision Plan reimagines the green infrastructure of Los Angeles County through a bioregional lens, interpreting the watershed as the living structure underlying the urban environment. The vision is brought to life through a mosaic of projects, partnerships, and programs, revealing how a coherent regional framework can emerge even in highly fragmented governance settings. The initiative shows, on one side, how green infrastructures can become strategic instruments if integrated into a bioregional perspective. On the other side, the Emerald Necklace Accord, a voluntary agreement among diverse agencies and actors for the implementation of the vision, exemplifies at the same time the promises of collaborative governance approaches and the limits inherent in soft governance.