Cities get creative with stormwater management

Cities around the world are crafting stormwater management policies that include natural and manmade methods to store and absorb runoff to reduce flooding.

A prime example is Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The low-lying city created an urban park that features a giant holding tank with a capacity of 450,000 gallons. This “water plaza” public space makes use of the stormwater in cascading channels with pools and fountains. During dry times, the public can make use of a basketball court, skate park, and an amphitheater.

The city is also planning more water storage areas in unused parking lots. To trap stormwater before it hits the ground, every municipal building is topped by a green roof.

Dutch specialists have helped New Orleans draft its Living with Water plan for stormwater, which supplements the city’s system of levies and pumps with new water storage sites and natural infrastructure to help contain and filter floodwater. The 50-year program for upgrades and retrofits to stormwater management incorporates the principals used in the Netherlands.

(http://grist.org/cities/to-make-our-cities-green-we-have-to-think-blue/)
(http://livingwithwater.com/)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.