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Download AudioA senior lecturer at Auckland University says it doesn’t need to costs billions of dollars to make the city more resilient to flooding – and there’s a lot cash-strapped neighbourhoods can do for themselves.
Heavy flooding during January and February inundated streets and houses in Mangere and the Henderson-Swanson area, where there are significant Māori and Pasifika populations.
Tim Welch of the School of Architecture and Planning says the idea of sponge cities is used successfully overseas – especially in densely urban Chinese cities.
Water is caught or held up so it releases more slowly.
“They range from big floodable parks and areas that collect water, to smaller things like planting native plants in your garden. Having driveways that aren’t just concrete but maybe gravel or permeable surfaces that allow out-water to filter through,” he says.
Dr Welch says if all of Auckland’s 1.7 million people did their bit to catch or slow down water during storms, it would help reduce flooding impacts.
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