Full Frame: California’s drought – Building resilience in communities

Full Frame

The Los Angeles Department of Sanitation has implemented a Green Streets program designed to break up the city’s concrete jungle, one block at a time.

Building resilience in communities facing adversities – whether it’s the impact of climate change or man-made crises – is crucial for people all around the world.

In California, the ongoing drought is causing many communities to solve their water problems, instead of waiting around for rain.

Full Frame: California’s drought – Building resilience in communities

Building resilience in communities facing adversities – whether it’s the impact of climate change or man-made crises – is crucial for people all around the world.

The Los Angeles Department of Sanitation has implemented a Green Streets program designed to break up the city’s concrete jungle, one block at a time. The idea is to slow rain runoff, so it can be filtered and drain back into a natural, underground aquifer.

Chris Solek is the programs director for the Council for Watershed Health in Los Angeles.

“We essentially use this as a living laboratory, a demonstration of things that work and,
of course, things that don’t work because when you put in these green streets you learn every time you put something in the ground,” explained Solek.

Conservationists hope the efforts will prevent water from running into sewers and heading straight to the ocean. Andy Lipkis is the founder of Tree People, a nonprofit organization that hopes to grow a climate-resilient Los Angeles.

“Rainwater captured and either recharged, where possible, or directly used can replace half the water we’re importing today,” said Lipkis.

Full Frame Contributor Sandra Hughes takes a look at how innovators are finding solutions to solve the drought.