Miles Altai Diekemper, Intern at BE-Ex STL
On an early July day in 2011, raindrops began to fall on the streets of Copenhagen. Over the next few hours, a “100-year storm” dumped ten inches of rain and caused widespread flooding. Damage to infrastructure was massive and city departments were caught off-guard. In the years since, however, Copenhagen has come to be known more for its sustainable development than for its vulnerabilities. Lessons learned in post-2011 Copenhagen can be applied towards St. Louis to address structural, historical and future issues.
After the 2011 Cloudburst, six discrete steps were followed to form a management plan for future flooding events: 1) Investigation, 2) Mapping/Modeling, 3) Evaluation of Status Quo Cost, 4) Design, 5) Involvement/Revision, and 6) Economic Analysis. More generally, three main points can be taken from the Danish response:
- Long-term planning is incredibly important for reconstruction. While the immediate impact of climate events can be the most devastating in the present, ongoing effects inhibit future development. In 2012, Copenhagen released the Cloudburst Management Plan (projecting work into 2030), along with decarbonization and district heating action plans on a similar timeframe. This long-term view allowed engineers and designers to pursue projects which could fulfill overlapping goals simultaneously.
- Community participation is central to both initial planning and subsequent reviews, especially considering that the most impacted areas have experienced historic divestment. A community-led co-design process could include town halls, charrettes, and other methods to engage feedback and active participation.
- Resources should be set aside for unforeseen issues which the city/region does not possess the knowledge base to solve immediately. Information sharing and external consulting from Europe and abroad have been crucial in building effective infrastructure.
The need for investment in St. Louis is significant. Problematic public health indicators such as childhood asthma rates, a lack of tree-shade density, and resulting heat-related illness and death are significant here and often correlate with historically redlined neighborhoods. Aging infrastructure, like the city’s sewer system, poses another serious vulnerability, as increasingly intense climate events will have proportionally greater impacts.
Coordinated, thoughtful long-term planning is needed to solve deep-seated problems in our city. Concurrently, disasters like the May tornado will require immediate response efforts to restore and provide shelter to those impacted. This tension will continue driving conversations in the city over the next decade. Lessons from Copenhagen and elsewhere—LA and Greensburg, Kansas for example—will be crucial to build a better St. Louis in years to come.