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With freshwater increasingly being a problem, being able to slow down tributaries and allow the water to percolate and help rebuild aquifers is something that s

by pstuart 13d ago

With freshwater increasingly being a problem, being able to slow down tributaries and allow the water to percolate and help rebuild aquifers is something that should be happening everywhere possible. Lost cost, high reward. Not sexy enough to get the attention it deserves.

destitude 13d ago
You will be amazed at how much local governments don't care about this. They actively try to remove water was fast as possible from an area.
- pstuart 12d ago
  Sadly, not amazed. Flooding is a natural concern (but not natural enough to not build in a freaking flood plain), and most communities are not forward-looking enough to look upstream for solutions likely because it may be out of their township and "not my worry". Los Angeles seems to be waking up to the issue: https://www.ladwp.com/who-we-are/water-system/sources-supply/stormwater-capture https://www.ladwp.com/who-we-are/water-system/sources-supply...
Cthulhu_ 13d ago
Loads of projects being done for that (at least in Europe) after droughts have become more and more common. Netherlands especially, worldwide experts in water management because for hundreds of years they tried to actually get rid of the water; the whole country is full of infrastructure for managing the water table. This year was bad in terms of drought, yet it seems it wasn't as bad as the one we had a few years ago (2018 or 19? I don't remember exactly) because they allowed the water table to go higher a bit, used the ijsselmeer as a giant fresh water reservoir, closed / limited locks, etc. After this year and the rapidly accellerating / worsening effects of climate change, like the drying out (ok, low water levels) of the Rhine, I'm sure they're working hard to do more. They can for example choose to allow the flood plains to flood even when there's no flooding, to (locally) add to the ground water. Granted, it takes (iirc) decades or hundreds of years for that to end up in the aquifers but better now than never. Other projects I've heard of involve allowing rivers and streams to meander again, undoing the work of straightening them to get rid of water faster and / or optimize shipping traffic.

by pstuart 13d ago

destitude 13d ago

You will be amazed at how much local governments don't care about this. They actively try to remove water was fast as possible from an area.

pstuart 12d ago
Sadly, not amazed. Flooding is a natural concern (but not natural enough to not build in a freaking flood plain), and most communities are not forward-looking enough to look upstream for solutions likely because it may be out of their township and "not my worry". Los Angeles seems to be waking up to the issue: https://www.ladwp.com/who-we-are/water-system/sources-supply/stormwater-capture https://www.ladwp.com/who-we-are/water-system/sources-supply...

Cthulhu_ 13d ago

Loads of projects being done for that (at least in Europe) after droughts have become more and more common. Netherlands especially, worldwide experts in water management because for hundreds of years they tried to actually get rid of the water; the whole country is full of infrastructure for managing the water table. This year was bad in terms of drought, yet it seems it wasn't as bad as the one we had a few years ago (2018 or 19? I don't remember exactly) because they allowed the water table to go higher a bit, used the ijsselmeer as a giant fresh water reservoir, closed / limited locks, etc. After this year and the rapidly accellerating / worsening effects of climate change, like the drying out (ok, low water levels) of the Rhine, I'm sure they're working hard to do more. They can for example choose to allow the flood plains to flood even when there's no flooding, to (locally) add to the ground water. Granted, it takes (iirc) decades or hundreds of years for that to end up in the aquifers but better now than never. Other projects I've heard of involve allowing rivers and streams to meander again, undoing the work of straightening them to get rid of water faster and / or optimize shipping traffic.