Aging infrastructure in Pittsburgh has resulted in sewer overflows and street flooding with more frequent and intense heavy rainfall under climate change. The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) identified priority neighborhood and designed an integrated watershed plan utilizing green and gray infrastructure to improve water quality and manage stormwater.

Along Water Street in Yorktown, VA, York County led a shoreline protection project that placed clean sand fill and rock breakwaters to form a series of pocket beaches—beaches stabilized by artificial or natural headlands. The project provides protection to approximately 1,600 feet of Route 1020 (Water Street) along the York River.

The Puyallup River in Washington state is channelized and disconnected from its floodplain due to levee construction and logging in the region. This has led to habitat degradation for important fish species and a higher risk of flooding and damage to important transportation infrastructure. This project will reconnect over 28 hectares of the floodplain. 

After an extremely heavy rain destroyed almost 500 miles of roadway in Colorado, the state is redesigning roadways and the streams they follow to make the roads more resilient to future floods. Rebuilding strategy include armoring road base away from river and constructing floodplain between the road and the river.

Hampton, Virginia created the state’s first environmental impact bond to finance community resilience projects. The city’s resiliency officer led the effort, and partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an outcomes-based capital firm, and local partners to make the bond and the storm-water management resilience projects a reality.  

Rising temperatures threaten coral reefs, which dissipate wave and storm energy to protect nearby shorelines for nearly 200 million people worldwide. To enhance coastal protection, this novel project will identify thermally tolerant coral stocks, propagate in nurseries and outplant at three sites on O’ahu, Hawai’i.

In 2011, a 1,000-year flood caused deaths and over $2 billion in damage in Nashville, Tennessee. The city created a vibrant downtown park that incorporates flood protection measures. Riverfront Park includes a bioswale, bioretention areas, rainwater harvesting infrastructure, green roofs, and permeable pavers to reduce flood impacts. 

The project is part of the St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership which is a collaborative of agencies and community members working to increase the pace and scale of cross-boundary forest restoration that provide infrastructure protection and public safety in the St. Vrain Watershed.

The San Francisco Bay Living Shorelines Project is implementing oyster reef and eelgrass bed restoration at two locations to demonstrate the ability of living shorelines to protect coastal infrastructure and communities while enhancing biodiversity. The oyster reefs and eelgrass beds successfully reduce wave energy, minimizing erosion and decreasing flood risks for the coastline. 

The Paseo de las Iglesias restoration project aims to reverse severe environmental degradation and improve flood resilience along the Santa Cruz River. The project’s main goals are: significant ecosystem revitalization, on-site water reclamation and storage, hybrid green/gray erosion control, historic programming, and public access and recreation.  

This project restored 3 acres of shoreline and dune vegetation on Santa Monica Beach to enhance dune habitat and biodiversity along the shore. These enhanced dunes will protect the beach and nearby infrastructure from flooding and sea-level rise. This promotes recreation on the beaches and improves tourism to Los Angeles’ iconic beaches. 

The tidal marshes at Sears Point in San Pablo Bay, CA have been subsiding for the past century due to draining and diking for development. Marsh restoration occurred by returning tidal flow to the area and building marsh mounds. This allowed for natural sediment accretion, revegetation, and newly created habitat for wildlife.  

The EPA, FEMA, and Rebuild Iowa partnered to plan economic growth and redevelopment of the Iowa City riverfront following the devastation of the 2008 Iowa floods. The primarily goal of the partnership was to add green infrastructure and add open space along the riverfront to reduce future flooding.

Sodus Point Beach on Lake Ontario experienced significant flooding in 2017 and 2019, causing over $3 million in damages to the beachfront community. To restore the beach, this project created a sand-collection feature using a dune, sand fencing, and 30,000 native dune-grass plants to capture wind-borne sands and keep the sand on the beach.  

Cape May, New Jersey is increasingly vulnerable to flooding and erosion from coastal storms. This project replenished the beach and restored dune and freshwater wetland habitats. This project resulted in restoration of over 460 acres of coastal habitat, and increased resiliency of the Cape May community. 

The Southern Flow Corridor project works to relieve more than 1,214 hectares of community from regular flooding and reconnect more than 65 hectares of Tillamook Bay’s salmon-bearing habitat to streams. This project converted retired dairy land into wetlands by removing a levee system. This restored 179 hectares of habitat and opened new tidal channels. 

On the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan, the city of St. Joseph is vulnerable to flooding from storm surges. Residents and city officials recognized the need to build resilience and worked together to enact a "no-build" ordinance to help minimize coastal erosion and retain beach access.

This project reconnected 965 acres of Columbia River floodplain to the lands and waters of the Steigerwald Lake National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. This reconnection reduces flood risk, improves terrestrial and aquatic wildlife habitat, and restores natural ecosystem functions. This project protects nearby communities from flooding that have consistently damaged properties. 

In 2017, the City of St. Louis Park, Minnesota implemented the Rainwater Rewards Program with the goal of increasing awareness and importance of managing stormwater and green infrastructure throughout the city. The program seeks to increase green infrastructure by providing residents with financial and technical assistance to install projects that reduce stormwater runoff on residential properties.

Napa County has experienced flash floods that resulted in deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Napa and surrounding counties opted for a restorative flood mitigation approach to address environmental issues while increasing flood resiliency. The project design aimed to return the river to its natural state to prevent flooding.