Integrated water management

Summary

This is the practice of managing water on a community scale in ways that produce amenity values and increase the effectiveness of the existing public water infrastructure by relieving it of the burden of handling peak flows and events that go beyond its design capacity.

While no city in the United States has a comprehensive water plan of this type, Amsterdam and Rotterdam are currently implementing the second versions of their water plans. The Netherlands is a floodprone nation that earns 60% of its GDP below sea level and has gained valuable knowledge through centuries of trial and error. The Dutch owe their survival and success to multiple lines of flood defenses and to their sustainable approach of living with water and building with nature. They have shown delta cities with issues similar to those of the Greater New Orleans region that living below sea level is possible, but requires adaptation.