If you are like me, you’ve noticed a huge uptick of storms and rainfall. I feel a new consciousness around weather arose when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Then we saw Hurricane (Super Storm) Sandy swamp New York City causing gigantic damage throughout the city and region. These are examples of coastal storms. Now, a new awareness of storms hurting cities is awakening. This time it’s for inland cities.
In Oct 2015, Columbia, SC experienced massive rainfall because Hurricane Joaquin parked off the coast and cycled rain clouds over the area for days. Homes, streets, and businesses were harmed. People’s lives were destroyed. What does New Orleans, New York City and Columbia have in common? They have a history of managing stormwater that tries to discipline and fight nature instead of embracing it. It’s not isolated to these three places. Our entire society has been built on the premise that we must battle natural forces with concrete, steel and plastic. With our new awareness, we’re coming to see that this needs to change for lots of reasons.
One reason is that old school thinking about stormwater is expensive. The damage done to Columbia in Oct 2015 is estimated to cost $132million. This is on top of an already expense of $120 million for updating existing water systems. Hurricane Sandy cost NYC $19billion and Hurricane Katrina was estimated to have caused $150billion in damage. These massive costs force towns and cities to go into debt to pay for them. However, often what happens is that systems are repaired and “improved” but not fundamentally changed and reborn. Even worse, repairing what’s broke doesn’t fix the problems but can exacerbate the original reasons for flooding and damage.
One reason is that old school thinking about stormwater is expensive. The damage done to Columbia in Oct 2015 is estimated to cost $132million. This is on top of an already expense of $120 million for updating existing water systems. Hurricane Sandy cost NYC $19billion and Hurricane Katrina was estimated to have caused $150billion in damage. These massive costs force towns and cities to go into debt to pay for them. However, often what happens is that systems are repaired and “improved” but not fundamentally changed and reborn. Even worse, repairing what’s broke doesn’t fix the problems but can exacerbate the original reasons for flooding and damage.
A bigger reason for rethinking the old school approach is that we will likely see more rain, not less, in the coming years, and it’s likely that the rain won’t come from hurricanes. By “repairing” the aging systems, municipalities could be setting themselves up for greater damage and greater costs down the road. We need new ideas.
Rain can be an amenity. Our country has seen a tremendous revitalization of waterfront property. Where rivers, lakes and oceans were once misused by industry, they are now places that people want live, work and visit. Rain has yet to see such renewed interest. There was a time that people prayed for rain, danced for rain and even celebrated rain. Yet for centuries, our best engineering minds have worked to hide rain in underground pipes and quickly splash it away from the human eye. We have oceanfront, lakefront, even riverfront properties that are the desired locations of new development, businesses and property owners, why not rainfront? Why not create ways that help us relearn how to get enthusiastic about rain?
At the end of 2015, I submitted the idea for Rain Parks to the Knight Cities Challenge. The Cities Challenge seeks new ideas from innovators who will take hold of the future of their cities. Stormwater is just waiting to be innovated. My idea is to work with Columbia, SC to transform it into Stormwater City, a place that squeezes the goodness out of rain and sheds the old perception around rainwater. I recently found out that it has been selected as a finalist for the challenge. Rain Parks are a step toward making Columbia a more vibrant and livable city, and a national leader in changing the paradigm of stormwater. A rain park isn’t one specific think, but a collection of methods, techniques and design approaches that can be applied to small yards to large commercial projects to entire cities. They create places that people need and want, induce social interaction, increase the value of surrounding businesses & developments while turning rainwater into something we can love again, even dance for again. Rain Parks are the prelude to rainfront property.
Rain Parks are an evolution of my work over the last 10 to 20 years as I’ve worked on green buildings, and began to see an enormous gap between Best Management Practices (BMP) for stormwater with the excitement and sexiness of design. Rain Parks are a twist on existing BMP that understands that if we want to create awesomeness, it shouldn’t be diluted with jargon and technical details.
The final proposal for the Knight Cities Challenge is due at the end of January 2016. We’ll find out if we win later in the year. I’m super excited to be a finalist, and can’t express the hope I have to work with Columbia on populating it with rain parks, engaging communities and expanding economic opportunities with a fresh, new perspective on stormwater management. I really hope, by the end of 2017, Columbia will be the first city in the country to have Rain Parks and show that rain is a barnstorm for a more awesome future.
The final proposal for the Knight Cities Challenge is due at the end of January 2016. We’ll find out if we win later in the year. I’m super excited to be a finalist, and can’t express the hope I have to work with Columbia on populating it with rain parks, engaging communities and expanding economic opportunities with a fresh, new perspective on stormwater management. I really hope, by the end of 2017, Columbia will be the first city in the country to have Rain Parks and show that rain is a barnstorm for a more awesome future.
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