Barranquilla is a city that floods on top of a river. Every wet season, runoff overwhelms streets that have no real stormwater infrastructure and the same creeks that carry that runoff are also the city’s de facto sewers, with only 17% of wastewater actually treated. This post proposes Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems along the existing creek corridors as one intervention for both.
Flood Management
Addressing Flooding with Regional Planning in Chelsea, MA
Introduction Chelsea, Massachusetts is located on Boston Harbor along the northern banks of the Mystic River. Mill Creek and the Chelsea River bound the city in the North and East, respectively. The city’s geography makes it particularly vulnerable to coastal storm surges and sea level rise as well as pluvial […]
Modular Management: Water System Redundancy and Resilience in Asheville, NC
Western North Carolina faces several large challenges to modernize its water infrastructure and secure auxiliary systems that mitigate harm in the event of failure. Hurricane Helene’s impact displayed severe deficiencies in regional water management; specifically, in the region’s largest city of Asheville, water access was unavailable to some communities for […]
Integrated Solutions for Urban Water Resilience: Tianjin’s Path Forward
Overview The blog explores Tianjin’s comprehensive water management approach, detailing its water supply systems, infrastructure, and pricing mechanisms. The city faces complex water challenges with climate change, including water scarcity, pluvial flooding, land subsidence, and water pollution. Historically reliant on rivers like the Haihe and now dependent on large-scale water […]
Upstream, Downstream: Kawasaki’s Best Chance to Manage the Flood Risks
Introduction Kawasaki, situated along Japan’s western Tokyo Bay, faces increasing flood risks driven by its geographic and climatic challenges. With a significant portion of its population and assets concentrated on vulnerable alluvial plains, even a single flood event could result in catastrophic damage. Map: Kawasaki City Hydrology and Water Facilities, […]
Building Resilience: A Strategic Approach to Managing Flooding in Montpelier, Vermont
Introduction Montpelier, the capital of Vermont and the smallest U.S. capital by population with approximately 8,000 residents, is located in Washington County at the confluence of the Winooski River and its tributaries, the North Branch and Stevens Branch (City of Montpelier, “Welcome to Montpelier”; Figure 1). Montpelier’s river-centered valley and […]
Neighbourhood-scale Treatment Wetlands to Address Wastewater and Flood Management Challenges in Saint Louis, Senegal
Saint Louis is a West African municipality that experiences water delivery and wastewater management challenges. These challenges largely stem from the national water utility’s inability to keep up with the pace of urban growth and provide adequate service for all residents. Due to its geographic location, the city also experiences […]
Expanding A Lifeline To the City: Solving Detroit’s Water Challenges
Brief History of Detroit The city of Detriot can be said to have originated from the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac’s establishment of a fort on the banks of the Detriot River in 1701. By the 20th century, it became known as the automobile capital of the world, as […]
Will Tampa be the Next Underwater City?: Stormwater Management in Tampa, FL
Hannah Locke The city of Tampa’s water system is affected by a variety of growing issues that have increasingly intensified in the last few decades and will continue to if not properly addressed. Tampa’s location on the Gulf Coast of Florida has seen an increase of extreme weather events, including […]
Shenzhen’s Next Nickname: The Big Sponge
When we think of the city of Shenzhen, it is the epitome and symbol of China’s opening up to the outside world, it has created a miracle in the history of industrialization, modernization and urbanization development in the world, and it always ventures to lead the world. After forty-year high-speed […]