For a century, Jordan Creek cut across downtown Springfield. Over the decades, the stream regularly flooded into the city's commercial heart. Residents had been tired of the floods so they created concrete banks to cage the stream and in 1932 buried the waterway, hiding it in culverts. (排 水管)under city streets. It was man's attempt to control floodwater. That was the old way of thinking.
For a while, that controlled the floods. But the roads and other hard surfaces prevented water from going into the ground and allowing more rainwater into the enclosed streams than they could handle. Eventually, the water won. The neighborhood flooded in 2000, 2008 and 2016. For two decades, the city discussed freeing the stream and allowing water to run over the floodplain, Finally, a project to uncover 1,100 feet of Jordan Creek and build three bridges is moving forward. The new way of thinking is to give the water some room, leave some areas for floods and just let nature be nature.
Uncovering buried waterways to bring them back to life is a process known as"daylighting". Coverings are removed and an attempt is made to restore the natural flow and the surrounding ecosystem.
The primary goal of the project is flood control. But the work has a variety of benefits. Native plantings will help improve the water quality by filtering (过滤) rainwater. The stream will replace an unsightly landscape and become a "string of pearls (珍珠)" connecting parks and green areas in the city's "Quality of Place"initiative.
The benefits go beyond that. Stream restoration is neighborhood restoration. The project may promote economic development and increase property values and tax revenue. While the projects can be expensive, they end costly maintenance. Returning to nature is cheaper than maintaining concrete culverts.
