NJ balks over stormwater fix that works elsewhere

One of China’s many “sponge cities,” Haikou, experiences virtually no flooding after transitioning to primarily green, nature-based infrastructure instead of gray infrastructure like concrete and flood barriers. Prioritizing things like parks, wetlands, mangroves, and permeable pavement allows the city’s ground to soak up more rain.

The city of Amsterdam funded a blue-green roofs program to reduce both flooding and the urban heat island effect. The water collection system stores and releases rainwater, the variety of indigenous plants increase biodiversity, and the connected digital network allows them all to be controlled remotely.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development offers funding for affordable housing properties to retrofit their buildings to be more resilient to climate change and improve resident’s quality of life. The funding ensures the properties remain as affordable housing because these upgrades typically reduce bills and because property owners must agree to keep rent affordable for 25 years.

Dominica is funding its climate change adaptation and resilience projects, like building storm-resilient housing, by selling citizenship to people who want a Dominica passport to travel in the West with less restriction.

Farmers in West Bengal, India, are swapping rice for bananas to save on expenses and labor and adapt to increasingly erratic monsoons and rainfall impacting yields. The farmers use solar panels and drip irrigation setups funded by the state government to reduce emissions and minimize water loss, as bananas require a lot of water.

In Spain, Higueruela transformed wind farm revenues into municipal investments—funding schools, transportation, senior care, and local jobs—which stabilized the town's declining population and created a sustainable economic model that now provides 40% of its annual budget. A key success factor includes allowing the community to negotiate and reject projects that don't serve local interests.

Two-thirds of California’s farms are considered small, cultivating less than 50 acres, and they play a critical role in food security and climate resilience for the whole country. As climate change makes extreme weather more unpredictable, these farms have to rely on government disaster relief and crop insurance to get back on their feet.

Officials from Woodbridge Township in New Jersey bought and demolished almost 200 homes to create a flood-absorbing restoration area after Superstorm Sandy. The program assigns each homeowner a case manager to help them through the process from the appraisal to moving. Much of the area is now wetlands, which act as a natural sponge to prevent flooding.

The RainReady program helped some residents of flood-prone towns in Illinois keep their homes dry by assessing which measures they can take to direct rainwater away from their homes. Then, the homeowners receive grants to install the flood-control devices, such as rain gardens and backflow valves.

The Quinault Indian Nation is building new housing for its community about a mile from its current village on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The goal is to relocate the whole village to a place further above sea level to avoid flooding and sea-level rise.