The Rio Salado Environmental Restoration Project (Project) has been 40 years in the making and is the first of its kind in the desert southwest. It has become the benchmark for future river restoration Projects. The Project restores a 5-mile section of the Salt River (Rio Salado) that goes through the very core of the City of Phoenix. The Salt River provides essential 100-year flood protection for the City of Phoenix. The Project changes a dry riverbed eyesore of debris and gravel pits back into restored native wetlands and riparian habitats with recreational and educational uses while maintaining the essential flood control. It also revitalizes the central city area.
As cities and urban landscapes expand across the globe, water resource management continues to pose a huge challenge. Natural wetlands are often built over as cities grow, but a recent strategy of green infrastructure applies the opposite principle – wetlands are protected and constructed as part of city planning.
Wetlands, whether natural or man-made, act as large-scale storage and filtration centers for water streams. Beyond providing a habitat for wildlife and greenery in otherwise urban landscapes,...
Florida’s Kissimmee River once flowed freely. Fish, birds and other wildlife dwelled in the wetlands it fed. But in the 1960s, spurred by public outrage over flooding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers straightened the winding waterway and turned it into a drainage canal.
Flip forward a few decades and the river is returning — at least in part. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has partnered with the South Florida Water Management District on the Kissimmee River Restoration Project, aiming to restore a...
Nowadays floodplain areas are reduced in size or no longer function as active floodplains, thereby impacting on the delivery of environmental services to local and regional communities and economies. These services include regulating services such as protection against floods or water purification; provisioning services, such as nutrient collection and fertile soil formation; and cultural services, such as recreational, tourism and educational services; transport routes; and finally a secure water supply.
Many...
Computer models that help oceanside cities plan for their future also hold hope for a threatened coastal ecosystem.
It’s a mild and sunny summer day on the tidal salt marshes at Barn Island Wildlife Management Area, which sits across Little Narragansett bay from Stonington, Connecticut. Walking through a wide, dry stretch of marsh, Chris Elphick, a conservation biologist at the University of Connecticut, focuses a spotting scope on a group of little brown birds hidden among the thigh-high grasses. Elphick...
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule defining the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act… The rule will ensure protection for the nation’s public health and aquatic resources, and increase CWA program predictability and consistency by clarifying the scope of ‘‘waters of the United States’’ protected under the Act…This rule is effective on August 28, 2015.”
The Final Clean Water Rule, USEPA (link to full document)
On...
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