<
https://theconversation.com/as-climate-change-amplifies-urban-flooding-heres-how-communities-can-become-sponge-cities-217075>
"“When it rains, it pours” once was a metaphor for bad things happening in
clusters. Now it’s becoming a statement of fact about rainfall in a changing
climate.
Across the continental U.S., intense single-day precipitation events are
growing more frequent, fueled by warming air that can hold increasing levels of
moisture. Most recently, areas north of Houston received 12 to 20 inches (30 to
50 centimeters) of rain in several days in early May 2024, leading to swamped
roads and evacuations.
Earlier in the year, San Diego received 2.72 inches (7 centimeters) of rain on
Jan. 22 that damaged nearly 600 homes and displaced about 1,200 people. Two
weeks later, an atmospheric river dumped 5 to 10 inches (12 to 25 centimeters)
of rain on Los Angeles, causing widespread mudslides and leaving more than a
million people without power.
Events like these have sparked interest in so-called sponge cities – a
comprehensive approach to urban flood mitigation that uses innovative landscape
and drainage designs to reduce and slow down runoff, while allowing certain
parts of the city to flood safely during extreme weather. Sponge city
techniques differ from other stormwater management approaches because they are
scaled to much larger storms and need to be applied across nearly all urban
surfaces.
I’m a water resources engineer who studies and designs strategies for
sustainably managing urban stormwater. In response to recent flooding episodes,
some U.S. cities are beginning to take steps toward incorporation of sponge
city concepts into their stormwater management plans, but most of these
projects are still pilots. If this concept is to evolve into the new standard
for urban design, city officials and developers will need to find ways to scale
up and accelerate this work."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
