NY Doubles Investment to Make City a Natural Rainfall Sponge (1)

An ambitious plan to more than double New York City’s investment into making the city a natural sponge for increasingly heavy rainfall hinges in part on its ability to buy up new plots of land.

The state and city announced $2 billion on Tuesday that adds to an existing $1.5 billion fund to expand green infrastructure throughout all five boroughs, such as rain gardens that capture rainwater and bioswales that slow rainwater down. The funding will be spread out over 17 to 22 years.

Broadly, the effort seeks to use natural infrastructure to mitigate flooding, limit combined sewer overflows, and ...