Reflections on Copenhagen water and climate solutions

During class on Friday, April 18th, learning about water management methods in Copenhagen prompted me to think about the impact that climate change has on coastal communities and the need for solutions such as relying on green infrastructures to combat it. Given the successful implementation of green infrastructure solutions in Denmark, I wondered if similar infrastructure could be used in U.S. coastal cities (e.g., Miami and New York) and other cities that are frequently impacted by heavy rainfall. Through my own knowledge and experiences, I know that Miami and surrounding South Florida communities such as Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton) are impacted by a variety of climate-related water management challenges. These challenges include sea level rise, heavy rain, and severe weather events (e.g., strong thunderstorms and hurricanes). Similar to Copenhagen, these communities experienced flooding due to prolonged and intense rainfalls (e.g., flooding in Fort Lauderdale in April 2023). These challenges are exacerbated by the rapid population growth in Miami and South Florida as a whole. I wondered if green water retention and draining locations, similar to those in the Osterbro district of Copenhagen, could mitigate some risks associated with these events. Other green infrastructure solutions (e.g., living shorelines), could provide some level of protection from sea level rise, and as hurricanes that can cause rapid inundation. Lastly, I hope that if these solutions are implemented in South Florida and elsewhere in the U.S., they are implemented equitably so residents living in low-income areas are protected to an equal degree as residents living in high-income areas in cities such as Miami or New York. In the same vein, I hope that developing nations with fewer resources than the U.S.  and Denmark are able to implement this kind of infrastructure to protect their citizens and increase the climate resiliency of their coastal areas.