It’s Mother’s Day and a lot of people think about planting and gardening. Spring brings greenery, and also more water. If you have flooding concerns, it’s helpful to think about clever ways they can go together.
Some Examples
Downspout planters can hold upwards of 100 gallons of water …twice that of a rain barrel…and slow down any water after that, giving sewers a chance to catch up (source)
A typical medium-sized urban tree is capable of intercepting up to 2,380 gallons of rainfall per year (source)
Stormwater planters containing engineered soil and built to allow flow-through can manage water capacity and treat runoff for up to 15,000 square feet of impervious surface (source)
Mom Doesn’t Want Cement for Mothers Day. Likewise with flooding. With more cement, we just end up pushing more water to each other. Green infrastructure - even small things - is more effective and more attractive.
In this newsletter, we try to share flooding “news you can use”: for your place, for the community and sometimes the bigger picture. Thanks for reading!
For Your Place
Where will the water go? Now is a good time to look around your place or block and ask that question.
Here’s a short list of little things to reduce flooding. Some call it “maintenance” or “stewardship”…we just call it effective.
Cracks
On the roof or along foundation edge: fill cracks that opened from winter ice.
Downspouts
Are they blocked? Clean / connect them to a green space…
Drains
They could probably use a little TLC (look under top layer).
Sump Pump
Give it a sunny day test 🌦️…clear debris.
Rain Barrel
Roof water sends roof gunk down, good to clean it out.
Solution Stories (clickable)
For Community
Block Level Green Infrastructure
Tree Beds Help
Tom via FOFA in BK
“Through the rain garden stewardship program, I’ve connected with so many passionate people working together to care for our green spaces and divert rainwater from the City’s sewers.”
All Around The City
There are lots of places to do a little “green infrastructure”…
Community Event
Flood Solutions Fair in Chinese
In Flushing, they wanted to talk about flooding. So we brought the Flood Solutions Fair format to Central Queens with many experts - from big picture to micro-mitigation - but this time with Chinese-speakers. We can do that in NYC! Click to see highlights.
Share your flooding story and talk to others in Chinese! Join the WeChat NYC Flood Help Group
For NYC
Webinar Series
Affordability and Climate in NYC
We gather experts from across the city to talk solutions, not complain. From plumbing to policy, from basements to broader community. It’s a free mid-day webinar so grab your lunch and join us.
Topics so far:
1: How Do We Build Climate Strong Communities? (summary)
2: NYC Is Expensive: Will Climate Exacerbate Costs? (summary)
3: Small Business: Flood, Recover, Repeat (summary)
From Rebuild By Design, Waterfront Alliance, The City Sponge, with support from Con Edison.
Catch-Basin Love
Mamdani: Get The Gunk Out
The old NYC sewers are a bit tight, built for a different time when bigger rain storms didn’t happen so often. Catch basins get clogged with leaves, trash, NYC residue. The city is running pilot programs for people to “Adopt A Catch Basin” - but there are 150,000 of them. To get down into the depths and get rid of the gunk - we need to replace many catch basins AND have more trucks with special scooper tools.
Knowing flooding is a growing concern, Mamdani made an early decision to allocate $108M to replace 6,700 catch basins, on top of an armada of 40 more de-gunker trucks. If you see a catch basin that needs a ‘root-canal’…you know the deal (311) and get your neighbors to do it too.
For All Cities
Global Solution
Why “Sponge Cities” Is A Thing
So many people sent us this article (some thought we wrote it…wish we did). A great piece in The New Yorker by Eric Klinenberg. It’s worth the time, but below just a few highlights we pulled out.
» After intense flooding in China, a goal was set to turn 80% of urban areas into "sponges" by 2030, largely influenced by Chinese architect Kongjian Yu who coined the phrase: sponge cities.
“For centuries, he said, engineers had tried to turn cities into funnels. By contrast, the “sponge city” concept was, he said, a way of “doing Tai Chi with water.”
~ Excerpt: Eric Klinenberg, The New Yorker
» Not just in China, there are advanced examples of this approach in Copenhagen and nearby Hoboken, NJ (more about Hoboken)
» Why should NYC consider this? Our most intense hourly downpours on record have taken place in the past five years. Last October, 2 inches of rain (falling fast) led to a sensor detecting 22 inches of water on a Flatbush-area street where a man drowned nearby in his basement apartment.
» Like other older cities, NYC has to shift from thinking the solution is mainly about sewers and shift to prioritizing other ‘sponge’ approaches:Say
“Imagine the time and money that would be required to rip up every block of Beijing, Boston, or Buenos Aires. Most cities cannot excavate their way to safety fast enough. As a result, the ambition is shifting from replacement to redesign.”
~ Excerpt: Eric Klinenberg, The New Yorker
Have a Question, or Your Own Flood Solution Story?
Please email us.
