Green building, low-impact development, sustainable infrastructure — these terms open up a tool chest of ways to make cities more environmentally friendly. They include saving energy, recycling, using sustainable materials, minimizing global warming.

This website showcases “blue-green” building – low-impact development aimed at sustaining water and watersheds, so that nature can flourish even in cities. They include office buildings, schools, homes, parklands, even a cemetery.

Learn more by watching this KQED Video 

How Cities Affect Water and Watersheds

Cities cover much of the land with streets, sidewalks, and roofs. Rain no longer drips from leaves and soaks into soil. Instead, it rushes with flash-flood-like intensity to gutters, storm drains, and creeks. This runoff carries a toxic soup of heavy metals, petroleum products, pet wastes, pesticides, and litter washed from yards and streets.

The result is flooding, erosion, and pollution. Streams overtop their banks or cut deep, steep, unstable canyons. Plants, fish, and frogs are swept away. Storm flows and pollution endanger people, pets, and property.

Studies show that these effects begin when as little as 10% of an area is developed. Many millions of dollars are spent trying to lessen or repair the damage.

How we can make cities more water- friendly

Urban development can do a lot to filter out pollutants, slow down storm flows, and/or let water soak into soil. Possibilities include permeable surfaces, swales, detention basins, gardens, flow-through planters, green roofs, and cisterns. As the photos in these pages show, these elements also can make cities more beautiful and livable.

Some of the projects shown here were voluntary efforts. Most “blue-green” infrastructure, though, is appearing due to requirements of the federal Clean Water Act, cascading down through the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (a state agency), which in turn imposes requirements on local governments under a permit system. These affect only large projects and there are many exceptions.

With time and stronger rules or incentives, however, the kinds of projects you see on this website could make cities friendlier to both water and people.

This site was developed by the Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition with help from Susan Schwartz of the Friends of Five Creeks to highlight and praise exceptional buildings developed in Santa Clara County. 

We have joinned the Silicon Valley Water Awards Coalition so please visit their site www.waterawards.org for more information.

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This web site is not copyrighted. Use the images and information to let others know about water-friendly development. We would appreciate references and, especially, links to this website, to spread the word.