Preparing for Climate Change in the Chicago Region and Beyond: “Rain Ready” Initiative Promotes Better Rainwater Management
CNT Initiative Helps America Become “Rain Ready”
The Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has launched a new resource to help individuals, businesses, and communities find solutions to the problem of too much or too little water. CNT’s Rain Ready initiative offers a suite of policies and practices to help residents, communities, and states plan for weather events associated with global climate change.
“Through our years of research and advocacy on water management issues, we realized that there was something of a disconnect between information and action,” said Harriet Festing, Water Program Director at CNT. “Rain Ready seeks to close that gap by making it easier for homeowners, businesses, and government leaders to create Rain Ready plans.”
What is Rain Ready?
Rain Ready was developed by CNT with the support of the City of Chicago, a partner with CNT on the Chicago Sustainable Backyards Program, which ended in 2013.
The Rain Ready initiative is a distillation and expansion of practices already adopted by thousands of villages, towns, and cities across the continent and the world to capture rain where it falls.
As more undeveloped land is paved over and rainfall patterns become less predictable, communities are starting to take an integrated approach to water management, ensuring that every property, street, and neighbourhood is protected by a broad range of Rain Ready practices.
To become Rain Ready, communities should coordinate efforts on private properties and in public spaces to effectively manage water.
TO LEARN MORE:
To read the complete announcement, click on CNT Initiative Helps America Become “Rain Ready”