2 research outputs found
Green Infrastructure, Revitalization, and Sustainability
MCOM 441 Class “American Sponge City: Alternative Water Structures”
Avery Davis: “The Los Angeles River: A City’s Urban Heartbeat”
Robyn M. B. Stuber “Linking Social Sustainability to Sea Level Rise Through Vulnerability in Wicomico County, Maryland”
Brent Cagle “Water Resources and Plant-Based Eating: Radical Lifestyle or Reality Check?
American Sponge City: Alternative Water Structures
Winthrop University is working toward a greener campus by installing low-flow toilets, faucets and other water saving amenities in the West Center. This journalism project will explore the dynamics of green infrastructure as well as how this and other community projects can be implemented on a broader scale. This will be an enterprise journalism story with supporting information from government documents, scholarly journals and in-depth interviews.
America’s water infrastructure is a growing strain on the economy. Since much of the original construction was done over a century ago, it has begun to fail. These failures include water main breaks, sewer overflows and the inefficiencies of water structures in the face of the global need for clean water. Not only do these failures affect day-to-day life, but taxpayers ultimately pay billions in maintenance and clean up. Communities around the nation are making an effort to combat these rising costs by replacing failing systems with green infrastructures. One such community is Elmer Avenue in Los Angeles who has, by installing water reclaiming systems, turned itself into a “sponge city.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) action plan America spends 533 billion to maintain these failing systems over the next 20 years, this amount goes above what the U.S. can afford.
The American Society of Civic Engineers also found it would cost about 21 million in grants to improve outlying communities since 2013. Also, they awarded 42 water, sewer and storm drainage grants totaling nearly $12 million