"Officials around the world are implementing techniques to absorb or divert water and protect urban areas from the effects of climate change."
"Imagine a sponge. Swipe it over a wet surface and it will draw up water; squeeze it and the water will trickle out.
Now imagine a city made of sponges, or spongelike surfaces, able to soak up rainwater, overflowing rivers or ocean storm surges and release stored water during droughts.
Engineers, architects, urban planners and officials around the world are seeking ways to retrofit or reconstruct cities to better deal with water — basically, to act more like sponges. While water management has always been an essential service in cities, climate change, combined with urban expansion into wetlands and floodplains, is making flooding and drought worse at the same time.
Extreme precipitation is becoming more frequent and intense, and droughts more likely and severe. Impermeable paved surfaces like concrete and asphalt trap water without giving it a place to run off to, and they prevent accumulation of groundwater to be used later for drinking, cooking and cleaning. (On top of that, concrete production contributes significantly to climate change, accounting for about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.) Many cities are also coastal and low-lying, so they face an additional front in the war against water as sea levels rise."
Tatiana Schlossberg reports for the New York Times March 28, 2022.
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