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Abstract
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Decisions about land use and infrastructure have left little space for water, amplifying the effects of natural disasters and climate change.
When water inundated parts of New York City in September 2023, 28 people had to be rescued from their cars and basement apartments. Thankfully, no one died this time. In 2021, flooding in New York killed 11 people. Neighbourhoods in the city also flooded in 2020 and 2022, and it's not just New York. Floods are becoming increasingly frequent and severe globally, as are droughts. Steve Bowen, chief science officer for reinsurance firm Gallagher Re in London, described the most recent New York floods on X (formerly Twitter) as "the latest example of ageing infrastructure built for a climate that no longer exists". Such sentiments are common, and frequently followed by calls for more infrastructure: bigger levees and seawalls, larger pipes and stormwater tanks, and more dams, aqueducts and desalination plants.
But human-built infrastructure and land-development practices that leave little space for water are actually a big part of the problem. Eric Sanderson, a conservation ecologist and author of Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City (2009), called this out pithily in a series of posts on X. He captioned a video of water pouring into a subway stop: "Under former salt marsh" and one of a flooded area in Brooklyn, "Former bog".
Engineered structures intended to control water, urban sprawl and industrial forestry and agriculture have drastically altered the natural water cycle, contributing to both increased flooding and water scarcity. Society has dammed and diverted two-thirds of the world's large rivers, drained as much of 87% of global wetlands and degraded 75% of Earth's land area. "We need to let nature play its original function," says Adnan Rajib, an engineer and director of the H2I lab at the University of Texas at Arlington. "Water doesn't have anywhere to go."
Language: en |