Stormwater Management: Social Injustices

 Stormwater Management:

Social Injustices

    The development of stormwater management is an important one, especially for the United States of America, where the development of these practices, is somewhat newer, particularly when compared to its development in the UK; but that is not the conversation of this paper. The conversation of this paper is the deep need that some cities have for stormwater management and the unfair consequences that are passed onto vulnerable communities.

               The implementation of stormwater management strategies is meant as a solution to the development of urban areas. When urban areas are developed, water gets displaced because of all of the impervious materials that make up cities; and when larger storm events happen, the water moves faster, because of the hard surfaces, and is not getting soaked up, because of the lack of green spaces normally present in cities. This storm event usually overloads the sewers, causing overflows, which end up contributing to contaminated water being dumped in the nearby water bodies. As a part of Global Green Infrastructure written by Ian Mell, they quote “The ‘green’ approaches to stormwater runoff help to address recurring neighborhood flooding, combined sewer overflows, and the load on water reclamation facilities…”

               There are so many great benefits to “green approaches” to stormwater management, but there are also drawbacks, as is with anything, especially when talking about vulnerable communities. In Chapter 4, in the section titled “Chicago: green infrastructure and watershed management in high-density/high-need location,” there is a part that calls out “that increased vulnerability to stormwater events is aligned with socio-economic disparities, where areas of deprivation are proportionally more likely to suffer flooding.” In this case, the study revolved around the city of Chicago.  What was also noted was how “Large tracts of Chicago have … been given over to active and passive activities which require green infrastructure support, yet there seems to be a smaller number of neighborhood parks or green spaces.” These parks and green spaces in neighborhoods, could provide not only the access to nature that everyone requires but could also act as a form of “green approaches” and could help with the flooding in more vulnerable areas.

               However, as I have said, there are drawbacks to such progressions. As with anything, when areas, buildings, or anything of the sort improve in lower-income areas, the price and value of that area increase. When prices increase in more vulnerable areas, it can end up causing people to be driven out since they may no longer be able to afford to live in that area. There is a paper written that talks about this exact issue, it is called “It Is Not Easy Being Green: Recognizing Unintended Consequences of Green Stormwater Infrastructure.” In this paper they talk about environmental justice, it is written “The benefits of GIS [Green System Infrastructure] are mediated by complex social-ecological, and technical factors, which can determine where and when nature-based solutions deliver net benefits or costs to different social groups. Therefore, GSI planning and design decisions must consider environmental justice issues.”

        I understand that this is just one of the many things discussed in the chapters of Global Green Infrastructure, but this is a topic that I believe is not discussed enough. We are at a point in understanding how the development of buildings can have an effect on the more socially vulnerable communities, we are all familiar with the term gentrification, but I have never heard it in the same context as landscape architecture. This is something that I think needs to be highlighted because it is a sensitive and delicate issue that is affecting many and needs to have steps on how to avoid displacement of anyone, while still ensuring the safety of people, homes, and properties from flooding. I am not sure if that is even possible, to have steps to fix an issue without having a rise in property values and rent be a side effect of solving the issues of flooding, or at least mitigating those risks. I think that when approaching the implementation of stormwater management strategies, you must be careful with what practices are being implemented and what the consequences will be for others. Of course, you want to improve the lives and living conditions of others, but you also do not want to initiate something that will result in people leaving, for no longer being able to afford the area.