Experts are looking to nature to help improve Auckland's resilience to flooding in the future by looking at "daylighting" the region's waterways.
Currently, kilometres of pipes lie under all major cities, constantly working to carry away our water.
But what happens when pipes can't handle all that water?
"You are never going to be able to build a pipe that can handle that, so you have to think about infrastructure in a different way," Auckland Council's head of sustainable outcomes
"So probably for the last 70 years, we have tried to channel and contain stormwater. What we are turning to now is a more natural solutions."
Their solution is called daylighting.
Daylighting is when the pipe is put above ground into controlled streams that mimic rivers. It's about taking away the concrete and letting nature do what it's always done.
Auckland's Walmsley Park is a perfect example.
"This stream is highly engineered, but we are trying to mimic nature," Unitec School of Architecture associate professor
"To try and build a pipe that would capture the same amount of what I'm seeing in this area... that's a very big pipe. It would be huge.
"We would go broke trying to build infrastructure to cater for these events."
On the North Shore, Hooton Reserve was designed with rain in mid.
The entire area was underwater during the floods, which is exactly what it's designed to do.
"We deliberately built a terrace next to the stream which would be park. But when the stream did flood, that would flood and the people's activity would be on the next terrace up," Bradbury said.
It's about trying to slow the water, using plants and nature to act as a city-wide sponge.
It's now being embraced by landscape architect students at Unitec.
"There are specific native species that work in every single niche in Auckland that will actually not just improve the quality of the water but the stability of the ground," one student said.
They say the benefits of daylighting go far beyond flood resistance.
"When you build green infrastructure or open the streams up, you have multiple functions. You have amenity and you have a higher ecological value," Mansell said.
"If were going to be able to have a balance in our cities, we're going to have to have people looking after their own environment, because the council cannot cope with the maintenance of all these areas, especially as they expand."
That's the council's plan — more open waterways that serve a purpose for people, plants, animals and stormwater.
SHARE ME