Photograph by Kentaro Takahashi, The New York Times
President Donald Trump talked a great deal during his 2016 campaign about how he would fund massive new civic infrastructure projects if elected. Unfortunately, very few of those campaign promises have come to fruition. Other countries, however, are funding these types of projects, and some of them are designed to mitigate the impact of climate change. Many of the world’s largest cities are located on the ocean—Tokyo, New York City, Seoul, Osaka, Manila, Mumbai, Jakarta, to mention just a few. As ocean levels rise, and climate-driven events like hurricanes and typhoons increase, these cities will have to either move (unlikely) or create new infrastructure that can deal with the rising water.
Tokyo is one city that has been doing just that. The project pictured here is a set of massive underground tunnels and cisterns designed to capture floodwaters until they can be pumped back out to sea. Perhaps Houston will consider something comparable?
Read more stories by Eric Nee.