Climate Action Day 71 – Go Green With Your Infrastructure

Nature-Based and Natural Solutions

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

When looking for a new house many years ago, we faced some design and engineering constraints that made locating and purchasing an existing home a challenge. Luckily our town had annexed some land on the edge of an existing housing development to extend a road and a builder was offering lots for sale and some innovative house designs that met our needs. We were able to move into the house we needed and have lived there comfortably to this day.

When we were in negotiations, the builder warned us that there was exceptional scrutiny on the drainage on our land. Turns out we were downhill from a vast subdivision with manicured lawns, concrete sidewalks, and paved streets. Whenever there was a heavy rain (a “real frog strangler” as Dad would say), the whole area flooded. Apparently there was a history of uncaring developers selling houses that came with myriad water intrusion and flooding features. Roads flooded. I think there was mention of biblical events. Apparently it was a mess and the town was not having it anymore.

Downstream of all this potential waterflow, at the edge of my lot, they were building a series of drainage basins to slow and capture the flood waters. When the “100 year flood” came, the water from the surrounding areas would flow through the swale I was required to landscape into my yard. I was also required to build a “sturdy” rock wall where the water would first flow into the swale. At the time, I remember thinking it was reminiscent of a breakwater, and that waves of suburban water would crash into and over it.

I chose to build a stout boulder wall and in the four or five 100 year floods we have had in the last twenty years, it has withstood the onslaught. The drainage features were clever, though, and we have seen the whole system work beautifully several times in our time here. Likely it will happen more frequently has Minnesota’s climate changes to warmer and way wetter.

I dubbed the whole project the “Sacred Drainage System” after observing the town engineers coming out routinely and seemingly worshipping near it. It does work well: when the water flows through the swale, it first encounters the pond at the edge of our land, which rapidly fills up against a contoured embankment. When the water gets high enough, the water spills through a large drain into a much larger and shallower wetlands. This cascade continues, with drainage areas filling up and spilling over until at last the water drains out through what is normally a lazy running stream and out on its way to be dispersed safely through the watershed.

This is a wonderfully engineered example of green infrastructure being built to handle relatively uncontrolled run-off from the gray infrastructure that is the rest of the subdivision. The concept is simple. Control flooding and enhance the built landscape by increasing the number of surfaces that can soak up water and create water control systems that provide habitat for wildlife, birds, insects, and (hopefully native) plants.

Green infrastructure on the scale that I describe requires local municipalities to be forward looking. They may not be motivated by a sense of aesthetics or appreciation of nature, rather the economic and social calculation of avoiding flooded houses and displaced families. Once I realized the enhanced benefits of enjoying an attractive natural habitat that acts to safeguard our community in climate driven deluges, I happily maintain the swale and do what I can to maintain the initial drainage pond.

We are also going to be capturing the rainwater that runs off our roof through downspouts in rain barrels provided at a discount from our local county. There is so much opportunity to create an attractive, sustainable landscape and help mitigate the worst of climate change amplified deluges. No matter where you live, even the intense grey of an urban setting, there are green adaptation options that can be implemented.

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 72: Plant Trees to Shade Houses and Buildings

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