Concrete, asphalt, roofs: we’ve built so much impervious surface
that we have cut off the sky from the soil.

Series Number 1.0
Length: 8 mins 30 secs
Languages: Subtitles available in English and Spanish. Press the CC button in the video player.

In a natural environment, rainwater moves across and through the soil, eventually making its way to a river or stream. But the results of this — mud, marshes, flood zones — have often been at odds with modern human activity. Over the years we’ve come up with ways to move water away from us and keep our homes, roads, and workplaces dry.

The problem is that once you’ve got all that drainage and impervious surfaces — asphalt and roofs, mostly — the water often moves in new and problematic ways. We’ve ended up with flash floods, clogged drains, and trash and pollutants flowing off the streets. And all of those surfaces hold the heat of the sun and make our urban spaces much hotter.

In the age of climate change, with hotter air carrying more and more rain, these problems are only going to get worse.

In this episode, Andy Hyrcyna and Julie Wormser of the Mystic River Watershed Association guide us through the history of impervious surfaces and the problems they can cause.  

Hanna Mogensen and Aliya Caldwell, researchers at the University of New Hampshire describe how plastic trash in our waterways breaks down and ends up being consumed by birds and fish. 

Patricia Fabian, Principal Investigator at Boston University’s C-Heat Project, and Melanie Gárate of Mystic River Watershed Association talk about how impervious surfaces collect and hold heat creating islands of heat in urban spaces.

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