Building flood resilience with sustainable stormwater solutions
Environmental engineer by day, Lauren Selleck is passionate about climate change and urbanization-related issues. She’s been looking for an opportunity to use her expertise on environmental remediation to help bring immediate relief to communities while also being able to collaborate with Arcadians around the world.
That opportunity came in the form of the Shelter program, Arcadis’ pro bono initiative with UN-Habitat, which aims to improve people’s lives in cities worldwide by addressing one of the most urgent sustainability challenges: urbanization. At the time, a team of experts was working on a pilot project to design green and nature-based stormwater solutions for one of Mongolia’s ger areas, in Ulaanbaatar. These traditional tent communities are rapidly growing informal settlements on the outskirts of the capital city. Thousands of people have migrated in recent years from the countryside to pursue better jobs, healthcare, and other opportunities. But the informal settlements are highly prone to seasonal flash flooding, which puts lives and livelihoods at risk. Additionally, poor stormwater infrastructure and drainage near homes and schools create serious sanitation problems throughout the year.
Lauren joined the mission as a cost estimator and worked virtually alongside colleagues from the UK, the Netherlands, Romania, and India. Together they brought expertise in hydrology, civil engineering, landscape architecture, restoration ecology, and BIM to the project. But working off site on a global project has its challenges, from joining early morning calls across time zones to virtually accomplishing tasks such as capturing cost data from a remote location. Through close collaboration with her colleagues and support from UN-Habitat, Lauren overcame the challenges while also gaining new insights. She discovered the similarities between building the pilot project and construction practices in the U.S., and she saw firsthand how flood modelers, with technical assistance from UN-Habitat, gathered data and community input from the ger areas.
Over several months, the team developed six sustainable stormwater management solutions, including drainage system designs that will slow flooding or redirect it into a large channel running through the area. The mission also included an educational component. One design—a rain garden—was developed with the possibility of becoming the focus of an informational panel, so students and community members could learn more about stormwater management and resilience.
The early morning calls were worth it,” Lauren reflected. “It’s been a good experience, and global projects are really exciting. It’s interesting to see how different offices work and the different perspectives that are brought to the table. But more importantly, the project highlights that climate change is such a global issue and we’re seeing it manifest more obviously in different environments around the world. I really hope sustainable development projects like this will make a difference.
The ongoing flood resilience project in Ulaanbaatar’s ger areas is part of UN-Habitat’s Adaptation Fund. The final project will serve as an example of sustainable stormwater infrastructure and provide valuable data to communities and governments about flood resilience. Construction is planned to begin in 2023.
It was a pleasure to work with the Arcadis team,” noted a UN-Habitat partner. “They provided very professional support, although the virtual support was challenging compared to on-site. The mayor’s office of Ulaanbaatar City appreciated the work very much and showed strong interest in the proposed sustainable urban drainage system designs for the green-blue infrastructure pilot project, and is likely to reserve funding for the construction work.
Since 2010, Arcadians have taken part in more than 120 UN-Habitat missions in over 30 countries. This year, 52 Arcadians joined a Shelter mission to provide their expertise and support to UN-Habitat projects worldwide. To learn more about the Shelter program, click here.