Water is a terrible force . . . I remember my mentor, Donald Milton Roberts, FASLA, saying those words many years ago. I think it was around the time of Katrina, when everyone was saying how we could expect those kinds of hurricanes to become commonplace. Of course, since then I think only Sandy and Ian have caused wide spread destruction but it's still true that wherever water falls from the sky, and hopefully it will fall in abundance in Cali this winter, the more it gathers and collects in centralized locations, the more destruction it can cause.

In some places, like SoCal where I live, the first rainfalls clean the grime from the streets and rooftops and channels that filth into sewer systems that often times overflow into the sea. When it rains around here, it dumps, and were it not for concrete and asphalt there would be flooding everywhere. For a region where water is such a precious commodity, we do very little to contain and filter it, instead letting the vast Pacific Ocean do the filtration and cleansing.

 

Almost everywhere else in the country, where rain falls in more predictable amounts, most often overflowing into rivers and lakes that affect others downstream, the emphasis is directed into slowing, filtering, and retaining water with bioswales and vegetated channels. The trend is to daylight water channels, replacing the 8' underground piping of the late 20th century with open expanses of green. River banks are fortified with grid systems and riprap, enhancing the power of root systems to hold the banks and filter the grime. And who is best to deal with this storm water management?

It's not the engineers, who are needed to deal with the Katrinas and 100 year floods, but are the same folks who direct water with levies, pipes, and concrete channels. It's not the architects who are in love with concrete and glass and yet are still trying to hold Open Space awards to show how much they care . . . No, it's not those posers . . . It's you, the licensed landscape architects who are in tune with the flow of water and recognize the need to slow, filter, and retain the most precious of all resources and integrate that resource into responsible development, keeping the waterways of America clean and healthy.

Nothing can stop the hurricanes and 100 year floods. They have been with us since the beginning of time and will be with us forever, but you have the ability and skill to deal with all the rest of the storms and storm water. The articles in this issue bear testament to that. It's one of the reasons this profession is so important and just one of the myriad ways landscape architects protect the public's health, safety, and welfare.

God Bless . . .
George Schmok, Publisher
gschmok@landscapearchitect.com