Watch Out for Water!

Water is rapidly on the move and it’s damaging our homes, streets, and places of work.  It can be easy to point fingers and place the blame solely on climate change for water threatening the safety of our communities and our landscapes. But climate change isn’t the only factor causing changes in how water moves; it’s our infrastructure choices, too. Traditional stormwater management, in the form of gray infrastructure, puts us in a fighting position against water, imprisoning its flows in pipes and drains. We’ve lined river beds with concrete, narrowed stream beds, drained wetlands, and blocked off floodplains—When we try to resist and restrict what water wants, it retaliates back. 

The number and severity of extreme precipitation events will only increase alongside climate change, and water will only get faster. UNLESS we start making some changes in consideration of water’s natural flows, needs, and rights. The events of Louisville and Leominster can’t be treated as unforeseen disasters or accidents beyond our control. We must be proactive, stop working against water, and work with it instead. We need to make our cities spongier. It can be as simple as planting trees with sufficient soil or reclaiming land along the banks of local creeks and rivers to absorb excessive rainfall.

Green infrastructure, often literally “green” in itself, actively collaborates with nature, leveraging the capabilities of soil and vegetation to infiltrate, redistribute, and store stormwater volume, making communities safer and healthier. Rain gardens are green infrastructure. Tree canopy is a green infrastructure. Permeable pavement is green infrastructure. When we think green and act green, we secure a healthier and safer environment for all forms of life.