Stormwater Management Resources

41. NZ Cities Urgently Need To Become 'Spongier' — But System Change Will Be Expensive 2/22/2023

    Floods, storms, and heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense in a changing climate, and cities are poorly prepared for what is coming. Perhaps not surprisingly, there is now a lot more talk about the need for “sponge cities.” The basic principle is to manage urban flood risks by utilizing more natural drainage and flood-resilient systems and material.

42. Stormwater Management Is A Worldwide Challenge 2/6/2023

    Last month, I wrote about San Francisco's great rain garden/bio-retention basin project. Strategically placed sunken curb cuts, swales, or park features collect stormwater and let it filter into the ground, reducing the pressure on overwhelmed storm drains and sewers.

43. Rain Gardens Guarding San Francisco 1/27/2023

    Laurie Lauria and I spent last week moving out of San Francisco up to Napa, California, dodging the raindrops and taking advantage of a few dry days in this remarkably stormy winter — weather that makes this a perfect time to talk about the need to capture rainwater and protect overwhelmed urban sewer systems.

44. As Heatwaves And Floods Hit Cities Worldwide, These Places Are Pioneering Solutions 1/23/2023

    Climate change is going just as badly for cities as we have been warned it would. Extreme weather is increasingly common and severe globally. Australian cities have endured a number of recent disastrous events. It’ll get worse, too. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fact sheet outlining impacts on human settlements is a very sobering read.

45. Flood Forecasts In Real-Time With Block-By-Block Data Could Save Lives — A New Machine Learning Method Makes It Possible 1/19/2023

    I am a hydrologist who sometimes works in remote areas, so interpreting weather data and forecast uncertainty is always part of my planning. As someone who once nearly drowned while crossing a flooded river where I shouldn’t have, I am also acutely conscious of the extreme human vulnerability stemming from not knowing exactly where and when a flood will strike.

46. Grad Student Reimagines Oklahoma City With Green Infrastructure Design Using InfoDrainage 1/17/2023

    Andrea Tavera, a former University of Oklahoma graduate student, used Innovyze drainage design software to promote LID-based, green infrastructure design in hopes of resolving Oklahoma’s two greatest drainage challenges caused by stormwater runoff: excessive flooding and pollution. 

47. America's Summer Of Floods: What Cities Can Learn From Today's Climate Crises To Prepare For Tomorrow's 8/26/2022

    Floods are complex events, and they are about more than just heavy rain. Each community has its own unique geography and climate that can exacerbate flooding, so preparing to deal with future floods has to be tailored to the community. Recent floods provide case studies that can help cities everywhere manage the increasing risk.

48. What Is A Flash Flood? A Civil Engineer Explains 8/8/2022

    Flash flooding is a specific type of flooding that occurs in a short time frame after a precipitation event — generally less than six hours. It often is caused by heavy or excessive rainfall and happens in areas near rivers or lakes, but it also can happen in places with no waterbodies nearby.

49. Flood Maps Show U.S. Vastly Underestimates Contamination Risk At Old Industrial Sites 8/5/2022

    In 2019, researchers at the U.S. GAO investigated climate-related risks at the 1,571 most polluted properties in the country, also known as Superfund sites on the federal National Priorities List. They found an alarming 60% were in locations at risk of climate-related events, including wildfires and flooding. As troubling as those numbers sound, our research shows that that’s just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

50. Climate Change Is Making Flooding Worse: 3 Reasons The World Is Seeing More Record-Breaking Deluges 7/7/2022

    Although floods are a natural occurrence, human-caused climate change is making severe flooding events like this more common. In mountainous regions, three effects of climate change in particular are creating higher flood risks: more intense precipitation, shifting snow and rain patterns and the effects of wildfires on the landscape.