Reading this reflecting on how many regions face an over-reliance on grey infrastructure that misses the holistic ecosystem services provided by nature-based solutions. A sponge city - or land designed to soak up the rain where it fall with vegetation and rain catchment - builds climate resilience while restoring ecosystems that provide us with benefits like: increased air, water and soil quality, nutrient retention, carbon sequestration, habitat, biodiversity, urban cooling, not to mention the mental health benefits of a walk in the park. As Kennedy Halvorson says: "So why not explore the feasibility of an ecological option? Substantial research has shown that implementing ecological restoration practices upstream, such as replanting riparian habitat, adding large wood and rock features, re-meandering and reopening stream channels, and restoring and retaining floodplains, wetlands, forests and beavers on the landscape are incredibly effective strategies for absorbing water and slow flows, mitigating effects downstream. Protecting and investing in native ecosystems increases the landscape’s functional storage of water without the need for new dams and reservoirs."
Adding another dam in drought-prone southern Alberta is like adding another lane for traffic. It doesn’t address the problem’s cause. Yet, Alberta is on track to barrel ahead with more misguided damming plans. Opinion in the Calgary Herald from AWA's Kennedy Halvorson! https://lnkd.in/gUqrPnXj
