In just a short time this summer, American infrastructure has been pushed to its limits amid sweltering heat.
The Bay Area is due for yet another heat wave this weekend, but engineers in the region already are asking themselves what can be done to solve climate change's toughest problems, as California buckles down for an earlier, potentially more intense wildfire season.
As WCBS Radio's Lynda Lopez explores on the latest of episode of "Connect the Dots," natural infrastructure just might provide the answer.
But just what is it?
"Working with nature, using environmental restoration to help better manage climate change," Moira McDonald, director of the Walton Family Foundation's Enviroment Program, explained in an interview with KCBS Radio.
Natural infrastructure in the Bay Area would look different than in, say South Florida. McDonald said every region of the country would have to tailor its approach to its own geography.
"If you're on the coast, it might look like restoring barrier islands or wetlands," McDonald explained. "Wetlands actually serve as almost like a speed bump for hurricanes coming and mega-storms coming to the coast.
"...And then out west where we're experiencing climate change through droughts and wildfires, we think about ways that we can use wetlands to store water high up in the mountains so that, instead of it all rushing forward in the spring, we meter it out slowly and trickles down to the watersheds, keeping the area wet and reducing the worst impacts of the drought. Both for animals and for people downstream."
Western states are beginning to explore building climate-resilient infrastructure, including everything from building higher bridges which account for sea-level rise to investigating different road materials that wouldn't lead to roads buckling.
What else is being done to grapple with these increasingly volatile weather conditions, and how much of a wake-up call was last month's heat wave in the Pacific Northwest?
Related
