Working Water demonstrates better approaches of managing urban water resources in ways that support more efficient water use, clean urban runoff, support natural systems, and enhance the vitality and livability of our cities.
Exploring the potentials of urban water resources is an important part of Wenk Associates’ practice, and the focus of this book. Working Water has evolved as a reflection on over thirty-five years of the firm’s professional work and is organized in three parts. The first part is a teaching tool for students and the interested public. The second part is a monograph describing selected projects of the firm and their value as civic and natural resources in addition to their essential function of stormwater control. The third part is a resource manual describing lessons learned after decades of observing project successes and failures and ways to overcome legal, financial, and institutional barriers to implementing green infrastructure at a system scale.