Leading Change in the USA: Detroit Is Turning Vacant Lots Into Sponges for Rainwater Absorption

A rendering of one of the “rain gardens” on a vacant lot in the Warendale neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan (Courtesy of Joan Nassauer, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Michigan)

When it comes to green infrastructure, the city’s got plenty of parcels to work with….

Across the United States, cities must manage the water that falls on impervious surfaces and align themselves with the mandates set forth in the Clean Water Act. The challenge is to keep runoff as clean as possible and slow its path to receiving waters.

Detroit is a sprawling city, with vacant or buckling properties scattered across its 139 square miles. As of April 2016, 66,125 vacant parcels were held by the Detroit Land Bank Authority. This creates an opportunity for environmental interventions on a large scale.

In spring and summer 2016, researchers across the city are investigating the immediate and long-term ecological and sociological benefits of turning vacant land into stormwater basins topped with colorful plants.

Wade Rose, the vacant land restoration manager at the reforestation and farming organization the Greening of Detroit, is putting vacant land to work as part of the EPA-backed Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The Greening and its partners are working on 31 lots totaling about 3 acres. Over the next two years, as the plants flourish and the root systems expand, the Greening will monitor the interventions to determine which one is most successful and cost-effective.

“We’re looking for the sweet spot in between those two,” says Rose.

To Learn More:

Download Detroit Is Turning Vacant Lots Into Sponges for Stormwater to read the complete article as written by Jessica Liegh Hester and published online by CityLab.