Building Resilience Through Nature-Based Solutions in Southeast Michigan

In recent years, the Southeast Michigan region has faced more frequent and intense storms that have overwhelmed aging infrastructure, leading to flooding, water quality issues, and public health concerns. These impacts are not felt equally – communities located in some older, urbanized areas are often hit the hardest and have the fewest resources to recover.

The Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) partnered with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) to identify opportunities to install nature-based solutions in six Southeast Michigan communities to build flood resilience, protect and restore natural resources, and improve public health and quality of life. The nature-based solutions considered for this region include wetland restoration, floodplain restoration, shoreline restoration, detention basins, bioretention, tree planting/reforestation, permeable pavements, and more.

The project began by identifying communities in the region that are facing environmental challenges and using mapping to pinpoint locations where nature-based solutions could make the biggest difference. SEMCOG then reached out to local leaders to learn about each community’s priorities and interest in participating and to gather insights on the candidate sites.

Next, SEMCOG and CWP visited each potential site to see what challenges exist, how often it floods, and how the space is used. The goal was to identify where large-scale and small-scale nature-based solutions are feasible and identify the most appropriate type of solution for the site.

CWP developed ten concept plans per community for feasible locations, and prioritized the projects based on their feasibility, impact, and estimated cost. SEMCOG’s Resilience Hub website summarizes the project results and includes a dashboard with the locations of the restoration opportunities identified by the team.

With clear, well developed concepts, communities can now take the next step towards implementation by applying for funding through one of several grant programs in the region. SEMCOG will continue to work with many of these local communities on identifying project funding opportunities for design and construction.

This project was funded by a grant from the Erb Family Foundation. .

For more information about this project, contact Jordan Fox at jf@cwp.org.