STORMWATER MANAGEMENT RESOURCES
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Heavy downpours and a thick snowpack in the Western mountains and Upper Midwest have put communities in several states at risk of flooding this spring — or already under water. Help is coming, as Congress has authorized billions of dollars for infrastructure projects under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021. But there's a problem: New infrastructure planning frequently relies on historical flood patterns for its benchmarks rather than forecasts of changing risks as the climate warms.
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Learn about the solutions that have been integral to ground and storm water management for a number of large, highly complex projects at Salt Lake City International Airport.
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A meteorologist with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography explains how 2023’s storms compare to past extremes, and what to expect in the future.
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After three years of extreme drought, the Western U.S. is finally getting a break. Mountain ranges are covered in deep snow, and water reservoirs in many areas are filling up following a series of atmospheric rivers that brought record rain and snowfall to large parts of the region. Many people are looking at the snow and water levels and asking: Is the drought finally over?
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UK environment secretary Thérèse Coffey has demanded that water companies share plans for how they will reduce sewage discharges into rivers. They could start by coming clean on how much sewage is being dumped. If we don’t know how much sewage is actually being released — for at least the worst offending locations — we won’t be able to measure environmental and industry improvement with any confidence.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.