RESTORE THE BALANCE IN THE WATER BALANCE: “From green roofs in Toronto to Vancouver’s rain city strategy, Canadian cities are looking to become ‘sponges’ in order to help mitigate some of the effects of extreme rainfall events,” wrote Morgan Lowrie of the Canadian Press (October 2023)
“The goal is to reverse some of the harm done by decades of car-oriented urban development, which involved replacing natural spaces that soak up water with impermeable infrastructure such as roads and parking lots,” wrote Morgan Lowrie. “Green infrastructure can be incorporated into a landscape in many ways, from simple tree planting to rain gardens, swales, holding ponds and more complex bioretention systems that involve layers of filtering. Across Canada, cities appear to be jumping on board. The “sponge city” model brings multiple benefits.”