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This piece was produced in collaboration with our partner, the Great Lakes Commission through the Greater Lakes project, with support from the Great Lakes Protection Fund.
Roads are critical to the function of modern society. They get goods and people where they need to go. But roads also cut through the landscape like no other man-made feature, dividing natural habitats and fracturing natural hydrologic systems. Road runoff is one of the most important contributors of stormwater runoff to waterways across the Great Lakes basin. And much of that runoff is untreated and highly polluted.
But a new, forward-thinking approach--one that treats road runoff using nature--is emerging. This approach uses green infrastructure to treat road runoff and restore habitats--healing fractured water and ecological systems.
The Greater Lakes Initiative is leading an effort to bring water managers and road agencies together to increase this practice across the Great Lakes basin.
This video tells that story.
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Nina Ignaczak is a metro Detroit-based writer and the editor of
Metromode. Follow her on Twitter
@ninaignaczak.