How climate change is forcing cities to rebuild stormwater systems

Short Wave

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🗓️ 11 February 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

Deep below our city streets lie intricate networks of underground piping built to carry away excess rainfall run off. These stormwater systems mostly go unnoticed until heavy rains overwhelm them, causing streets to flood. Now, with rising rainfall averages in much of the nation, cities need to plan for more water. Guest host Dan Charles talks to climate correspondent Lauren Sommer about the challenges of such planning and why many cities aren't set up to handle the coming rains.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:06.3	Hello, it's Shortwaveers, Dan Charles here.
0:08.7	Go stand on the corner of a city block.
0:10.8	It's the usual scene, the road sidewalk.
0:14.3	Notice that storm drain on the corner?
0:16.5	Well, NPR Science correspondent Lauren Summers here to tell us
0:20.5	there is a whole different way to think about all this stuff we've built.
0:23.7	Hi Dan, and yes, what you're seeing really is a moment frozen in time.
0:29.7	That sounds very profound Lauren.
0:32.5	What does it mean?
0:33.9	Really, it's the moment that all that concrete was poured.
0:37.5	It was probably decades ago.
0:39.4	That's when city planners designed what you're seeing.
0:42.2	And they said, you know, all the stuff we're building has to withstand the elements.
0:46.4	Rain in particular because in a city, rain becomes runoff.
0:50.8	Right. With all that pavement can't soak into the ground.
0:53.6	So it just runs off.
0:55.7	Yeah.
0:56.2	But luckily, there's this network of pipes under our feet that carries all the runoff away.
1:01.8	It's the storm water system.
1:03.6	I love storm water systems.
1:06.4	This incredible network of huge pipes underground that nobody knows exists.
	...

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