Water Resilience: Hard Strategies

FUTURE AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

Recorded by Elizabeth Donovan, images by Veera Saastamoinen

KEY READINGS 

  • Design for Flooding: Architecture, Landscape, and Urban Design for Resilience to Climate Change. Donald Watson and Michele Adams. John Wiley & Sons

  • Retrofitting for Flood Resilience: A Guide to Building & Community Design. Edward Barsley. RIBA Publishing

  • Adapting Cities to Sea Level Rise: Green and Gray Strategies. Stefan Al. Island Press

  • Design and Planning for Flood Resiliency: Guidelines for NYC Parks

INSPIRATIONAL BUILT EXAMPLES

  • Enghaveparken. Third Nature. Copenhagen 

  • Hvidovre Beach Park. VEGA Ladscape Architects. Hvidovre, Denmark. 

  • Krøyer's Square. Lytt Landscape architecture. Copenhagen, Denmark

  • Sea Organ. Nikola Bašić. Zadar, Croatia 

  • Qinhuangdao Red Ribbon Park. Turenscape. Qinhuangdao City, China

WATER RESILIENCE: HARD STRATEGIES

Water resilience – hard strategies focus on five primary hard flood protection strategies: sea walls, flood walls, revetments, breakwaters, and dikes. While historically predominant, these resource-intensive approaches aim to resist floods. However, the shift towards resilient alternatives emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive approach. For instance, 

  • sea walls can serve as both protective barriers and communal infrastructure, highlighting the potential for multifunctionality. 

  • Flood walls, akin to sea walls, require integration with softer strategies. 

  • Revetments, sloping structures along riverbanks, mitigate wave energy and erosion, with design considerations for vegetation and water connections. 

  • Breakwaters, perpendicular to shorelines, reduce wave energy and storm damage, offering opportunities for biodiversity integration and improved access. 

  • Dikes, or levees, safeguard critical areas from floodwaters and require stability and ecosystem compatibility in design.

Despite challenges like material intensity and maintenance costs, hard strategies offer some benefits and enduring protection. However, integrating these strategies with softer approaches ensures effective flood risk management.

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Water Resilience: Soft Strategies

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Health of Non-humans