Advancing Soft-Path Water Infrastructure: Combined Constructed and Natural Systems

Abstract

In the mid-1980s, a development boom in the southwestern parts of Staten Island, New York City’s least-populous borough, triggered overflows from combined storm and sanitary sewers, causing flooding and degraded water quality. Instead of installing a traditional gray infrastructure drainage system, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) responded with a unique, multipurpose solution tailored to the area’s hydrologic patterns. Natural wetlands and drainage corridors—known as “blue belts”—were upgraded to handle the additional functions of storing and filtering stormwater.