Flood Management & Rain Harvesting
Introduction
15:34 minute video "UBC's Master of Land and Water Systems program presents an educational video on Urban Stormwater Management at the property scale. Designs such as bioswales, green roofs and roofwater harvesting are explored.
This series is useful for developers, students, real estate agents, homeowners, municipal/regional planners, managers and engineers."
Buildings
Roofs
Roofs capture a lot of rain, then generally dump it i
Blue Roofs
These refer to roofs designed specifically to collect rain water, filtering out grime or bird droppings, and then filling specific containers such as cisterns, indoor plumbing, or rain barrels. These don't have to have any plants, but it may be possible to incorporate plants in the design.
Green Roofs
These are specifically created to host plants. They might include patios and potted plants or they may be entirely covered with native grasses and wild flowers or host only shallow gravel beds with sedums and succulents.
Vertical or Wall Gardens
Vertical gardens can be grown indoors or out. You might want to use water from a blue roof system to water an indoor wall garden, but outdoor wall gardens can automatically and instantaneously help absorb water that could otherwise contribute to run off and flooding.
Public Land & Parks
Greenways & Greenbelts
14:18 minute video "UBC's Master of Land and Water Systems program presents an educational video on Urban Stormwater Management at the neighbourhood scale. Parking lot and road designs are covered, as well as bioswales, detention ponds, constructed wetlands and associated issues with mosquitoes.
This series is useful for developers, students, real estate agents, homeowners, municipal/regional planners, managers and engineers."
Roadways
These days most roads are made from impermeable materials, which means they can become dangerous rivers during floods, or act like dams which can lock in water and cause flooding on one side or the other.
To prevent this we can use permeable materials in our roads and walkways. Another option is to create sustainable drainage systems such as rain gardens, swales, and detention ponds along roadways.
This 8:02 minute video shows how even arid places can benefit from water-wise street design, while boosting local biodiversity. This is a very small street-side project, while videos like this show much larger rain-fed gardens in the same area.
Watershed Scale
A watershed is a geographical area where water falls (a rain, sleet, or snow) and eventually absorbs into the ground or flows into waterways and out to sea.
10:11 minute video "UBC's Master of Land and Water Systems program presents the final educational video in a series on Urban Stormwater Management at the watershed scale. Stream channels, riparian buffer zones and design flood storage are explored.
This series is useful for developers, students, real estate agents, homeowners, municipal/regional planners, managers and engineers."
Guides & Resources
North America
Canada
Alberta Clean Runoff Action Guide: Permeable Pavement (PDF) "Almost every landscape design has to incorporate hard surfaces such as driveways, walkways, and patios. Even these surfaces can be designed to reduce runoff and improve water quality."
Maps
North America
USA
Texas
Texas Watershed Viewer (interactive, click specific areas to see watersheds)"allows users to identify local watersheds, sub watersheds, river basins, and river sub basins throughout the State of Texas."
South America
Grants
North America
USA
Minnesota
Stewardship Fund Grants "support public efforts to manage stormwater, control pollution, and improve water quality and habitat."