With support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, U-M researchers lead a collaborative, community-focused effort to integrate nature-based solutions with traditional infrastructure to reduce flooding, restore ecosystems, and build long-term resilience.
With a project supported by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, CEE Professor Glen Daigger in collaboration with U-M’s Urban Collaboratory and faculty from the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning seeks to further mitigate issues of stormwater flooding and to also enhance biodiversity in Southeast Michigan.
Historic stormwater design criteria in Southeast Michigan makes managing issues of flooding a difficult task. However, under this grant, the U-M team aims to combine nature-based solutions, such as wetlands or the restoration of historic streams to advance development of a practical regional plan for stormwater flood mitigation that offers many social and environmental benefits, including better flood protection, safeguarding wildlife and creating new habitats.
“You can’t address a problem like this with just pipes,” said project PI Glen Daigger. “You have to use large-scale natural systems.”
While the project utilizes a wide variety of stormwater solutions, project leaders will also be seeking a variety of voices and perspectives throughout the process as well, connecting with community leaders, regional and local governments and non-government organizations, to create a strong network of thinkers and collaborators to advance nature-based solution implementation.
“The better we understand what people value and what concerns that they have, the better we can formulate projects that align with their objectives,” said Daigger.
The stormwater management effort features collaborators from not only within U-M but beyond it — researchers from Wayne State University’s Healthy Urban Waters Program, Michigan State University, and the environmental engineering firm LimnoTech Inc. serve as co-leads on the project. These many collaborators help to achieve the project’s interdisciplinary goals, such as their commitment to addressing environmental injustices and helping Southeastern Michigan residents reap potential economic benefits as well as environmental ones.
“As you’re mitigating flooding, there are multiple benefits, some of which can be directly monetized,” Daigger explained. “For example, flood mitigation lowers insurance rates for people and businesses. These broader economic benefits can eventually turn into local, state or federal support for projects like these.”
With this planning grant, Daigger and his collaborators have the opportunity to not only resolve current issues in stormwater flooding but create resilience within these Southeast Michigan communities and environments. By implementing natural solutions to stormwater flooding, the team aims to mitigate future problems before they even begin to form.
“Striking a good balance of these natural systems with traditional infrastructure dramatically improves the resilience of the system and its ability to deal with unusual weather events,” Daigger explained. “Natural systems can respond to these events and return to their natural functions very easily. That’s what resilience means in practice.”
The planning grant and its working meetings will continue to run through 2025.
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