Nick Hannes

• Create green spaces, especially ones with trees, to mitigate both heat and flooding, and reduce air pollution as well. They could be parks of varying size, swales, nature strips, wall gardens, rooftop gardens, etc. Increasing tree cover is probably the most beneficial though.
• Design urban spaces so that excess water is directed into green spaces, to mitigate flooding and/or make the most of rainwater. Swales, “sunken” gardens, and large green spaces where rivers are likely to overflow are all good ideas.
• Urban farming and urban gardening to mitigate disruption of food supply, as well as provide green spaces. Dig for victory!
• Diversify food sources as much as possible.
• Paint rooftops white to mitigate heat. I have also heard of painting road surfaces white.
• Where there must be a hard surface (roads, footpaths, etc.) use a porous surfacing material that allows water to seep through. That could be pavers with small holes or a new type of porous “concrete” (I’ve forgotten what it’s called).
• If you can grow mangroves, plant mangroves to mitigate storm surges, as well as improve biodiversity.
• Build large offshore wind farms to reduce storm intensity, as well as provide electricity. Yes, really.
• Build a modular energy supply to mitigate damage from natural disasters. Avoid large areas being reliant on one energy source or distribution network. Ensure backups for important resources like hospitals, communication, and transportation.
• Educate and inform citizens.
• Create and strengthen community networks. Community projects, community hubs, and buy nothing/food sharing groups are good places to start.
• Anticipate what emergencies are likely to occur and what peoples’ needs will be in that situation. Allocate funding, stockpile resources, and make plans accordingly.
• Install early warning systems if necessary, and make sure everyone understands them.
• Relocate people or important resources that are unavoidably in harm’s way.
• Enforce vaccinations. The last thing anyone wants to deal with in tough times (never mind an emergency) is a pandemic.
• Always account for supply lines!

• In flood-prone regions, have government buyouts of flooded houses and turn those areas into green spaces
• Change zoning laws where necessary to allow denser population (looking at California) while maintaining green spaces and flood planes
• Ensure that city planning takes into account making evacuation routes
• In drought-prone regions, subsidize homeowners collecting rainwater
• In fire-prone regions, restrict building on the forest margins where fires spread; bury power lines where possible

• BUSES BUSES BUSES are the first step in getting us from the existing car-dependent urban sprawl to the user friendly low/no emission public transit network we deserve. They’re many times more efficient than cars (passenger capacity vs emissions) and much faster to implement than any kind of rail or streetcar. I would say test a route map on buses and later convert the most used routes to electric streetcar.
• Speaking of which, no-fare transit now. Public money already pays for it and most transit systems only get a small percentage of their funding from fares.
• Strong communities where people know each other. Makes the streets safer, gives people a network to help each other out when they’re in need, and
• Tool libraries, repair cafés and co-ops for people to trade skills and avoid just throwing out things that still have life in them. Doing stuff through the public library is a wonderful way to start.
• I’ll say it again, localize production! Mostly food, but everything else as much as possible.
• Housing First - and seize homes that are kept empty for long periods by real estate companies and rental managers who just don’t want to fill them below the “luxury” price point.
• Ban “for customers only” restrooms. Just give people a safe place to go, or to get water, take their meds, or whatever else. This and housing first are immediate necessary measures against the housing crisis in most big cities. Related - gyms and pools should be publicly funded and open to everyone.
• Neighborhood-scale electric grids. Again, decentralized production is more resistant to disaster, but not every single house is suitable for rooftop solar, and it doesn’t have to be. A lot of people install a solar rig and end up selling excess power back to the grid.
• A broad switch to sodium batteries over lithium- a “green revolution” that’s built on resource extraction and exploiting colonized countries ain’t shit.
• (Kill capitalist imperialism, but we knew that already.)
• Lower rise apartment developments, capped at like 4 floors. More than that actually starts to have an adverse effect on mental health as well as aforementioned community building.
• Multi use zoning. Dismantle the infinite suburb where you have to drive 20 minutes for gas and groceries. Bring back the corner stores.
• About those bioswales and greenspaces: even where city policies require developers to make space for them, most of the time they throw down some crabgrass sod and call it a day. Require them to design with hardy native and naturalized plants that can thrive
• Single stream recycling, as available as trash is now. And actually DO the recycling, not just ship it overseas. There’s already a plastic recycling system that doesn’t even require you to sort it by type and dissolves instead of melting it (which releases a lot of toxic particulates). There are species of bacteria, fungi and even insects that can break down plastics too. Anything that’s not being recirculated and used should be broken down.
• Also sexy: municipal composting, free compost and mulch, I’ve seen this in such disparate places as San Francisco and my suburban Georgia county. County extension services everywhere offer a ton of resources that are woefully underused.