How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sponge

Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by Spooky23 on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @10:03AM (#15861490)

I think a great example of a good outcome when people give a hoot about stormwater (and other water removal options since it is an low lying coastal island!) and the environment is Hilton Head Island, SC. The town is aggressive or even militant about unnecessary tree removal.

The result is really interesting suburban infrastructure that reducing demand on the storm sewer. The Walmart parking lot isn't 5 acres of asphalt -- they left trees in place and have soil buffers with grass or other landscaping. Curbs are designed to direct water flow to those buffers.

I live in upstate NY, and even in that very different environment, those types of techniques as well as things like retaining pounds can really improve the situation with respect to flooding. Otherwise, the only way to remediate the impact of the increasing number of high volume thunderstorms is to dig up streets and build cisterns to sudden inflows.

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by montecarl on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @03:01PM (#15864449)

Austin, TX taxes you for the amount impervious cover[1] that you have on your property. I'm not sure if the tax is large enough to really incentivize businesses to keep large portions of their property unpaved, but I do see many parking lots with trees and many areas set aside for storm water collection.

[1] http://austintexas.gov/faq/impervious-cover-what-impervious-...

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by galobtter on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @10:16AM (#15861627)

While I think having more trees is good, I wonder if those trees and grass could lead to problems in the concrete and asphalt.

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by robotresearcher on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @01:04PM (#15863297)

Won't somebody think of the concrete and asphalt!?

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by jliptzin on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @01:08PM (#15863340)

One of the rare comments that actually made me LOL

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by beached_whale on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @10:31AM (#15861786)

Winter takes care of that for the tree's. No worries, the surface will be potted and uneven in a year or two.

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by Spooky23 on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @11:46AM (#15862529)

Depends on the tree and how the lots are built.

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by Feniks on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @02:36PM (#15864182)

To be fair just paving over everything is a cheap and immediate solution. Lots of towns don't have the money for maintaining greenery.

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by hnzix on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @06:11PM (#15866038)

"To be fair just dumping your waste into rivers is a cheap and immediate solution. Lots of companies don't have the money for safe disposal."

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by quickthrower2 on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @06:24PM (#15866110)

Generically:

To be fair just <something low cost, but high externalized cost> is a cheap and immediate solution. Lots of companies don't have the money for <high cost, low externalized cost>

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Re:How to Build a City That Doesn’t Flood? Turn It into a Sp... by hnzix on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @09:02PM (#15867006)

Where high externalized cost is a long-term negative impact on a community, which ranges from undesirable to unethical depending on context.

"Kicking the can down the road" should be called out and minimized. The HN hivemind usually frowns on regulations, but I don't see another practical solution for protecting the community from environmental hazards?

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