Posted on March 10, 2026 in ASRC News, Environmental Sciences Initiative
A recently published paper outlines an adaptive, sustainable, and equitable approach to urban water management.
In the American West, we’ve long built cities to survive drought. In the East, we’ve built them to drain away floods. But as climate change accelerates, a new paper authored by a multi-institutional research team, including scientists from the ASRC Environmental Science Initiative, suggests that these old, one-track ways of thinking are no longer appropriate.
The study, recently published in the journal Environmental Research: Water, calls for a radical paradigm shift in how urban centers manage one of their most precious resources. The reason? Having to deal with a phenomenon known as water whiplash.
The New Reality: Water Whiplash
Gone are the days when a city could be defined simply as wet or dry. Today, dry regions like California and Texas are experiencing catastrophic flooding immediately following record-breaking droughts. Meanwhile, many historically wet cities are struggling with unprecedented water scarcity and heat.
Current infrastructure—the pipes, sewers, and reservoirs often referred to as gray infrastructure—was built for the climate of the 20th century. It simply wasn’t designed to accommodate climate change and the new hydroclimatic realities of today.
More Than Just Pipes and Soil
The researchers argue that we cannot fix our water problems by just building bigger drains or taller dams. Instead, they propose viewing urban water as a social-ecological-technological system. This means acknowledging that water management isn’t just about engineering; it’s about:
- Social Equity: Historically, underserved communities are often located in the hottest or most flood-prone parts of a city.
- Ecological Health: Using “green infrastructure”—like urban forests and wetlands can naturally soak up rain and cool down neighborhoods.
- Technological Innovation: Moving beyond municipal boundaries to manage water as a shared regional resource that is generated from upstream source areas and discharge into natural or human-dominated receiving waters.
With 80% of the US population now living in cities, the stakes couldn’t be higher. When water is managed poorly, we see hazardous summertime conditions in dry areas and catastrophic floods in wet ones. By shifting to this integrated approach, the researchers believe we can build cities that are not only more resilient but also fairer and greener for everyone.
“We need to stop thinking about water as just something that comes out of a tap or goes down a drain,” says Peter Groffman, a coauthor of the paper and professor with the ASRC Environmental Sciences Initiative and the Brooklyn College Earth and Environmental Science department. “Urban water is deeply connected to our social fabric and our local ecosystems. If we don’t manage all three together—the social, the ecological, and the technological—we will continue to be vulnerable to the extremes of a changing climate.”
A “Learning-by-Doing” Approach
One of the paper’s most vital messages is that scientists can’t solve this from a lab alone. The authors advocate for community engagement as a cornerstone of the new paradigm. By teaming up with residents to understand their specific needs and attitudes, cities can create adaptive solutions, learning and adjusting as they go.
Paper coauthor Charles Vörösmarty, founding director of the ASRC Environmental Science Initiative and a professor of Geography and Environmental Science at Hunter College, emphasizes the urgency of this integrated vision:
“The water whiplash we are seeing today is a wake-up call. Our current systems are overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of alternating droughts and floods, for which they were never designed. This paper is a roadmap for a more resilient future, one where we use transdisciplinary science to help cities navigate these challenges in ways that are both sustainable and equitable.”