"SLOW WATER" is what I'm calling the way we can adapt to avoid the increased flood risk of 48 percent of global land area by 2100, and 52% of the population, per a new study from @nature https://slowwater.world/ 

I've been reporting on people who are innovating Slow Water solutions for my upcoming book, as they ask a bold question that inverts our control freak tendencies: What does water want? #slowwater #water #climate

#Climate change is amplifying floods and droughts, but our development -- urban sprawl, industrial agriculture -- and the way we’ve tried to control water – dams, levees, channelizing rivers -- are making these disasters worse. #slowwater #water https://ericagies.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sponge-City-Revolution-Gies-SciAm.pdf

To a large degree, humans speed water off the land, depriving it of its natural slow phases where the magic happens to flatten flood peaks, save water for droughts, and keep healthy homes for plants and animals. #slowwater #water #climate https://ericagies.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Groundwater-Storage-California_Gies_Scientific-American.pdf

We can become more resilient to big swings in #water supply with a kind of un-engineering that reclaims space for water to stall on the land: wetlands conservation, tidal marsh restoration, floodplain reclamation. #slowwater #climate https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06955-4

Slow Water, as I envision it, finds commonality with Slow Food, in drawing attention to where [water] food comes from and how its production affects people and the environment. Both collaborate with nature and mold to the specifics of place and people. #slowwater #water

Slow Water is also in the spirit of Aldo Leopold’s land ethic. The forester-turned-conservationist called for us to strengthen our relationship with soils, waters, plants and animals. It’s care and need entwined, as we and nature hold each other up. #slowwater #water #climate

This is what I mean by my hashtag #slowwater Slow Water is a growing international movement, AKA sponge cities in China, green infrastructure in the US, natural infrastructure in Peru, nature-based solutions in Europe, and water-sensitive urban design in Australia. #water

#slowwater