Stormwater: the difficult 'third water'

Stormwater: the difficult 'third water'
Road as river - Auckland's stormwater system failed to cope with last Friday's deluge (Image: Getty)
Pattrick Smellie
Aucklanders discovered a few things about their playing fields, wetlands, culverts and streams over the last few days.All of them, it turns out, have part-time roles as essential elements in the stormwater system.Yet most of us don’t realise just how much of our everyday urban infrastructure becomes a de facto part of that system when an overwhelming amount of water arrives all at once.For example, almost no one travelling from Silverdale to Auckland at around 5pm last Friday would previously have expected to discover that the southbound...

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