August 15, 2023
Sponge cities needed to deal with rain extremes
A research report from the Helen Clark Foundation is calling for Auckland to become a sponge city, where parks, trees and wetlands are used to absorb the extra water generated by climate change.
Report author Kali Mercier says with a major flood event every eight months, the system of concrete and pipes used to channel water away as fast as possible isn’t working.
She says cities need to learn to respect water and where it wants to go by bringing streams out of pipes and into the day-light, planting more trees on road sides, and even having green rooftops.
“So one of the things we recommended is we should be aiming high, not just to manage stormwater but also to bring the mauri or the life force of the environment back and aim for rau ora or abundance in the environment so doing solutions that are going to deal with the biodiversiy crisis and make cities nicer places to live as well,” Ms Mercier says.
She says over the past seven years Auckland has issued 10,000 consents for houses to be built on flood plains.