Easy Stuff

As I said a few weeks ago when San Diego has some flooding, Philly has problems with clogged gutters simply because they won't do comprehensive street cleaning.  Enraging me doubly, the main reason they won't is because people don't want to move their cars. Basements and more flood because of the parking people.

Some things are complicated and expensive and some things aren't.

“The reality [is] that you simply can’t rehabilitate everything under the ground … for climate change, you simply can’t,” Chester said. “So a reasonable strategy seems to be to attenuate, reduce the amount of water that’s putting pressure on those systems.” In other words, if the pipes can’t all be swapped out for jumbo-size warming-proof behemoths, try to limit the amount of water that gets to the pipes. One way to do that is with green infrastructure.

“There is growing interest in the U.S. and around the world in nature-based solutions, including green stormwater infrastructure,” McPhillips said. She has documented the increasing use of things like green rooftops, curbside “swales” where plants and soil can collect water, and larger retention areas—all designed essentially to soak up some of the intense rainstorm’s output and then release it slowly, such that the existing drainage systems don’t get overwhelmed.

Replacing all the sewer pipes is expensive, but trying to divert some of the water in other ways isn't. There are limits to the effectiveness of this - or anything - but with flooding, things are fine right up until they aren't, and moving that line out just a bit can prevent a lot of damage.