Thinking Ecosystems, Providing Water: The Water Infrastructure Imperative

• Author: Keith H. Hirokawa & Jonathan Rosenbloom
• Pages: 45-64

45

Chapter 3

Thinking Ecosystems,

Providing Water: The Water

Infrastructure Imperative

Keith H. Hirokawa & Jonat han Rosenblo om

As climate change impacts become more pronounced, already strained

infrastructure necessar y to ensure the provi sion of critical serv ices

will be put under add itional stress. In t he conte xt of urban water

supplies, climate change gu arantee s instability in the acquisition, transmis-

sion, provision, and disposa l of water. Such chal lenges facing water-relate d

services, including the provision of potable water a nd control of oods,

pose immediate a nd long-term t hreats to health, sa fety, and welfare, and

importantly, accompany failures in a wide array of essential public ser vices.

Neverthele ss, notwithstanding widespread agreement reg arding the risks,

the potential for grave danger, and the high costs to improve water supplies

and associated infrastructu re, we have seen surprisingly little eective long-

term water planning to ensure continued water-related ser vices in the era

of climate change.

Most signicantly, planning for future provision of water-related services

continues to focus on conventional “gray infrastructure” in which the manu-

factured, engineered, built environment is viewed as the primary, if not sole,

means to provide essential services. Often working against natural processes,

gray infrastructure—such as diversion systems, pipes, tunnels, culverts,

detention basins, berms, tiling systems, a nd cost-intensive water treatment

Authors' Note: e authors would like to t hank the attendees at the Environmental

Law Collaborative (2014), and give special thanks to Stephen Miller, Robin Craig, and

Jessie Owley for organ izing and compiling the written do cuments for this book. Being a

part of the Collaborative has been among the most gratifying experiences we h ave had

in legal acad emia.

46 Contemporary Issues in Climate Change Law & Policy

facilities—is the traditional method used to provide potable water and/or to

prevent damage from unwanted water.1

In this chapter, we look to emerging systems often called “green infra-

structure” as short and long-term cost eective methods for providing ser-

vices in the face of climate change impacts. Green infrastructure—such as

wetlands, urban forests, bio-ltration, ponds, rain gardens and other natural-

based treatments—leverages ecosystem services and capitalizes on vegeta-

tion, soils, and natural processes to provide potable water, prevent damage

from ooding, lower costs, and create healthier, vibrant communities.

While we focus predominantly on threats to water systems stemming

from climate change, we do so recognizing that urban water infrastructure

in many locations is already greatly stressed and overtaxed by population

growth, migration, and age of a neglected infrastructure. e challenges fac-

ing water-based services are amplied not only because they are related to

essential human services, but also because the existing infrastructure is both

vast and vulnerable. For example, each year trillions of gallons of water are

lost through hundreds of thousands of miles of pipe used to transport water.

Updating this infrastructure is estimated to cost hundreds of billions, if not

trillions, of dollars.

In its Final Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC), Working Group II acknowledged the infrastructure challenges ris-

ing from climate changing conditions and t he signicant risks they pose to

crucial services, stating:

Climate Change will have profound impact s on a broad sp ectrum of i nfra-

structure systems (water and energy supply, sanitation and drainage, t rans-

port and telecom munication), servic es (including health care and emergency

services), t he built environment and ecosystem services. ese interact with

other soc ial, economic, and environmental stressors exa cerbating and com-

pounding ris ks to individual and household well-being (medium condence

based on high agre ement, medium evidence).2

For purposes of this chapter, Working Group II’s statement contains two

critical obser vations. First, it is signicant that Working Group II chose to

1. Tiling is a sophisticated underground drainage system, designed to get water o agricultural land

as quickly as possible. An example of the widespread use of tiling can be seen in the Midwest where

about 48%, 48%, and 42% of Illinois’, Ohio’s, and Indiana’s cropland, respectively, is tiled. Z-

 S, A U.S. F D: C GIS L  B E  S

D E 6 (World Resources Institute Aug. 2007), available at http://pdf.wri.org/assess-

ing_farm_drainage.pdf.

2. I P  C C, C C 2014: I, A,

 V 538 (2014), available at https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/ [hereinafter 2014

IPCC A R].