As disruptive natural events become more common, there is an increased need for communities to recover quickly and regenerate. Working with nature – instead of against it – to build resilient landscapes provides a foundation for recovery and regeneration that can improve human and ecological health. Our first post in this six-part series defined a resilient landscape, the framework to build one, and how grasses, sedges, and rushes fit into these plantings. If you missed that post, check it out here. Below, we examine and discuss solutions for the most frequent natural disaster, flooding.
Flooding is often a localized event and can result from precipitation events, storm surge in coastal areas, or stormwater runoff from surfaces like streets, sidewalks and parking lots. Historically, solutions to flooding have utilized grey infrastructure measures alone like installing more and larger culverts, building walls, and channelizing natural waterways. However, these measures are costly and could result in catastrophic failures. So, once again, let’s turn to nature to help provide possible solutions. There are measures and plants that can be put into place to help with flooding.
Green Infrastructure/stormwater management measures such as bioretention cells, rain gardens, and bioswales are important components of flood prevention. They work to slow, filter, and direct runoff safely, as well as capture it to increase infiltration and soil moisture. Learn more about these practices below.
Bioretention and Rain Gardens are vegetated, shallow depressions in the ground designed to provide storage, evapotranspiration, and treatment of stormwater runoff. They drain within 24-48 hours and dry out when rain is sparse.
Bioretention: usually large in scale. Includes engineered media, drop inlets, and underdrains.
Rain gardens: typically small, excavated depressions in a residential or non-commercial setting.
Both store runoff and will drain within 24-48 hours. When rain is sparse, they will dry out.
They prevent pollutants from entering local waterways and recharge the groundwater supply
Plants must be able to handle both wet and dry conditions and tolerate pollutants from surrounding land use.
Bioswales and Vegetated Swales are gently sloping channels planted heavily with a variety of species, as opposed to grassed swales, which contain only turfgrass.
Treat water from surrounding areas by slowing it down, filtering out trash and pollutants, and allowing for infiltration and evapotranspiration.
Heavily planted with a variety of species, as opposed to grassed swales, which contain only turfgrass.
Plants for the bottom of a bioswale need to be able to handle fluctuating conditions between wet and dry.
Plants for the upper slopes need to be tolerant of wet conditions but also be able to tolerate consistent dryness between rain events.
Managing stormwater with green infrastructure measures is key to building resiliency and promoting better living in our communities. Grasses, sedges, and rushes work great in these measures and can help provide solutions when it comes to flooding. They have fibrous, branching root systems that help hold soil, improve drainage, and slow water flow. They minimize use but readily take up water when present. They also use water very efficiently and some can withstand prolonged flooding.
Provides shelter, nesting material, and food for birds and wildlife
These are just a few of the plants that can help with flooding. Our Green Infrastructure and Native Plants for Stormwater Charts are great resources for finding other options. Our individual plant profiles provide more information as well. Join us next week for our next stop in this series, landslides.
As disruptive natural events become more common, there is an increased need for communities to recover quickly and regenerate. Working with nature (instead of against it) to build resilient landscapes provides a foundation for recovery and regeneration that can improve human and ecological health. A resilient landscape is an adaptive, forward-looking framework that works with nature to design and retrofit communities, and spaces to recover quickly and provide solutions from extreme events such as loss of biodiversity, drought, extreme heat, fire, flooding, and landslides. In this six-part blog post series, we examine each of these extreme events and recommend grasses and sedges that work well in resilient landscapes. Our first post covers loss of biodiversity.
As disruptive natural events become more common, there is an increased need for communities to recover quickly and regenerate. Working with nature (instead of against it) to build resilient landscapes provides a foundation for recovery and regeneration that can improve human and ecological health. A resilient landscape is an adaptive, forward-looking framework that works with nature to design and retrofit communities, and spaces to recover quickly and provide solutions from extreme events such as loss of biodiversity, drought, extreme heat, fire, flooding, and landslides. In this six-part blog post series, we examine each of these extreme events and recommend grasses and sedges that work well in resilient landscapes. Our second post covers Drought.
As disruptive natural events become more common, there is an increased need for communities to recover quickly and regenerate. Working with nature (instead of against it) to build resilient landscapes provides a foundation for recovery and regeneration that can improve human and ecological health. At the beginning of our first post in this six-part series, we cover what makes a landscape resilient, the framework to build one, and how grasses, sedges, and rushes fit into these plantings. Our third post covers extreme heat.
