Rise to Resilience!

    The Challenge

    You are a newly appointed Regional Green Engineer. Your challenge is to develop green infrastructure solutions for complex challenges in water management and risk reduction.Create a tool to assess the characteristics of an urban or rural area of your choice, and integrate green infrastructures, or nature-based solutions, into that region’s development plans to1) reduce flood and/or drought risk2) establish sustainable land use practices3) support water management, and/or 4) produce local economic opportunities.

    Background

    As a result of climate change, cities are faced with increasing water management challenges – flash floods, sea level rise, and water quality issues, to name a few. Rural areas deal with an additional set of challenges – top soil erosion, low crop resiliency during drought, and increased stress on wildlife.

    The most effective approaches to reducing risks associated with these complex challenges are often those that not only address building resilience across multiple interconnected issues but also remove practices that create or exacerbate hazards. It’s no surprise that some of the best solutions for water management and risk mitigation are those that embrace the power of Mother Nature and bring back the green!

    Green infrastructure offers an opportunity to build multi-faceted resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Strategic placement of greenspaces in urban areas, for instance, can improve air quality and reduce the urban heat island effect. Greenspaces can also greatly decrease flood risk during precipitation extremes through improved water infiltration capacity, compared to concrete and other impervious surfaces. Increased water retention in the soil simultaneously increases groundwater recharge, thus improving drought resilience as well. As soil microbial health grows in a greenspace, so does the soil’s capacity to sequester carbon. This ultimately helps to reduce global greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and address the underlying cause of climate-related hazards.

    Potential Considerations

    • How will you collect, analyze and visualize multiple data sets to identify areas vulnerable to floods and other hazards?
    • What is the best way to visualize data layers of vegetation and other natural assets?
    • How will you assess best locations to convert grey (buildings, roads, etc.) to green?
    • How can your tool guide planning, mitigation, transition, and restoration efforts?
    • How can you find ways to improve effectiveness of existing green infrastructure?