The Chesapeake and Coastal Service supports communities in adapting to climate-related flooding hazards in three phases: Understand, Plan, and Implement. Each phase reflects a step towards a resilient community that addresses the challenges of today and tomorrow. The Green Infrastructure Resilience program helps local governments assess their stormwater and riparian flooding hazards and evaluate how green infrastructure practices can improve their resilience. For information on understanding and planning for coastal impacts, such as storm surge, shoreline erosion, sea level rise, and nuisance flooding, please see CoastSmart Communities. For information about designing and implementing resilience projects, please see the Resiliency through Restoration Initiative.

Green infrastructure practices are those that allow water to infiltrate in place, such as rain gardens, bioretention facilities, bioswales, and infiltration trenches. When designed effectively, these practices can manage water quantity while also slowing flow velocity. In addition to managing flooding risk, these practices also improve water quality, reducing the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment in stormwater flows. Applying green infrastructure techniques can achieve management goals cost-effectively, often requiring less funding than gray infrastructure improvements.

The Green Infrastructure Resilience program provides funding to help local governments perform the evaluations needed to understand their stormwater and riparian flooding risks and plan to effectively address them. Project examples include performing hydrological assessments, assessing flooding hazards and existing stormwater infrastructure to identify system improvements, evaluating how flood risks may be impacted by projected changes in precipitation patterns, investigating how green infrastructure practices could address flooding scenarios, and developing a prioritized plan for green infrastructure implementation.

Projects are solicited annually through the Chesapeake and Coastal Service’s Grants Gateway - please see outcomes 1 and 2 for more information.

Case study: City of Hyattsville Stormwater Climate Masterplan and Retrofit Improvements Plan The City received funding in 2017 to assess flooding hazards in the Ward 1 neighborhood and identify potential solutions. The first phase of the project focuses on performing an existing conditions assessment to evaluate infrastructure and determine what its shortfalls may be under future climate conditions. In the second phase, a storm drain improvements plan will be developed, which will identify gray infrastructure projects while also prioritizing green infrastructure solutions to manage current and future climate hazards. The project is anticipated to be complete in early 2019.

Contact information:
Cory Russell
Project Implementation Officer
Office: 410.260.8799
E-Mail: coryc.russell@maryland.gov

The Green Infrastructure Resilience program has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement CB96358501 to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The contents of this website do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the EPA endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this website.