When heavy rain falls in many American cities, it does more than soak the streets. It challenges the strength of aging pipes, the health of nearby rivers and the resilience of the neighborhoods – especially those in low-wealth communities that often flood first and recover last.

For too many communities, that test has become a recurring crisis, made more intense by a changing climate and decades of underinvestment in the communities that need protection most.

Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) offers a different path forward. By helping people work with nature rather than against it, GSI manages water where it falls, easing the burden on overstretched gray systems such as traditional pipes and storm drains and reduces flood risk, while delivering benefits that extend far beyond a single storm.

Rain gardens and retention pond parks cool hot blocks and create greenspace for people. Bioswales filter out water pollution. Restored wetlands shield coastlines from storms and create wildlife habitat. Permeable pavements and green roofs slow rushing water and lower energy bills.

This is why Kresge invests in GSI through its Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems initiative, known as CREWS. For more than a decade, CREWS has supported community-rooted organizations, nonprofits and utilities advancing water solutions that also strengthen public health, expand economic opportunity and build community power, especially in neighborhoods long overlooked by traditional infrastructure investment.

The questions and answers that follow offer a closer look at how green stormwater infrastructure works, why it matters, and how cities, funders and residents can shape a healthier and more equitable future together.

Q: What is green stormwater infrastructure, and how does it work?

A: Green stormwater infrastructure, often called GSI, uses natural systems to manage rainwater where it falls. Instead of immediately channeling runoff into pipes and sewers, GSI features like rain gardens, retention ponds, bioswales, green roofs, permeable pavements and restored wetlands absorb, filter, and slowly release water back into the ground. These solutions help bring back part of the natural water cycle that paved surfaces have disrupted. They cut down on runoff and help clean the water before it flows into local rivers and streams.

Q: How is green stormwater infrastructure different from traditional stormwater management?

A: Traditional stormwater management, sometimes called gray infrastructure, relies on curbs, gutters, drains and underground pipes to move water away from impervious surfaces like roads, parking lots and rooftops. Gray systems typically discharge stormwater directly into local waterways without treatment or reuse. Green infrastructure takes a different approach by treating stormwater as a resource. GSI solutions can capture, clean and reuse water on-site, easing the burden on aging gray systems and creating community benefits along the way.

Grey infrastructure is of course critical to flood defense, but it can work with green infrastructure to prevent water from overwhelming traditional systems and flooding people’s streets and homes. The vegetation and permeable surfaces in GSI slow runoff, store water for drier periods, cool neighborhoods during heat waves and shield coastlines from storm surge. Over the past decade, we have seen that green and gray systems can be more effective when used together to address flooding. Cities that strategically combine the two can be better positioned to respond to the increasingly severe storms driven by climate change.

Q: What benefits does green infrastructure offer beyond flood control?

A: GSI projects can deliver multiple benefits. The trees, plants and green spaces integrated into GSI cool neighborhoods by reducing the urban heat island effect, improve air quality, create wildlife habitat and offer parks and recreation opportunities for people. For residents, that can mean lower energy bills, fewer asthma triggers, healthier outdoor spaces and stronger neighborhood connections. Green infrastructure can also support local businesses and create green jobs in installation and maintenance, all from the same investment.

Q: Why does Kresge’s CREWS initiative invest in green stormwater infrastructure?

A: The Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems initiative (CREWS) supports organizations advancing GSI as a sustainable, equitable response to flooding and water pollution. CREWS is grounded in a principle sometimes called multisolving, the idea that the strongest investments are those that address multiple challenges at once. GSI projects in a community can reduce flooding, cool hot blocks, filter pollution, create habitats and offer a gathering space for neighbors. Over the past decade, CREWS has supported partners who design water and flood solutions that also equitably advance health, economic mobility and community power, especially in neighborhoods that have borne the heaviest burdens of disinvestment and climate change.

Q: How does green stormwater infrastructure advance equity in cities?

A: Decades of disinvestment have left many low-wealth neighborhoods and communities of color with fewer trees, more pavement and aging water systems that flood more often and recover more slowly. The same neighborhoods often face higher rates of asthma, heat-related illness and energy costs. This is why a multisolving approach matters. Research shows that GSI projects, when designed with community input and leadership, can begin to address these interrelated issues by creating green space, cleaner water and cooler streets in the neighborhoods that need them most. CREWS partners prioritize community-led planning and implementation so residents shape where projects go, who builds them and how the multiple benefits are shared.

However, equitable outcomes require more than thoughtful design. They require a change in who holds power over water decisions. CREWS partners are advancing co-governance models that position residents, community-based organizations and public agencies as shared decision-makers. Co-governance means residents help set priorities, shape budgets, choose project sites and define what success looks like in their own neighborhoods.

That shift also calls for a deeper culture change inside the institutions that have long managed water. CREWS partners are helping utilities, city agencies and engineering firms rethink and reform longstanding community engagement, project implementation, and budgeting practices and recognize the expertise residents carry about their own blocks and watersheds.

When co-governance and culture change move together, power is redistributed, relationships are repaired and the benefits of climate resilience are shared by all.

Q: Which cities are leading the way on green stormwater infrastructure?

A: Cities across the country are showing what is possible. Philadelphia’s Green City, Clean Waters program is a nationally recognized 25-year effort to manage stormwater through green and grey infrastructure. Other cities such as New Orleans, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Chicago are advancing co-governance GSI models, where communities and utilities work together to tailor projects to local conditions, from bioswales in formerly redlined neighborhoods to wetland restoration along vulnerable coastlines. These efforts demonstrate how cities and residents can work together to manage water, create jobs and build climate resilience at the same time.

Q: How is green stormwater infrastructure funded, and why does that matter?

A: Funding for GSI typically comes from a mix of sources, including federal programs like the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water State Revolving Fund, local stormwater fees, municipal bonds, philanthropic investment, and increasingly, private capital through tools like environmental impact bonds. The mix matters because how a project is financed often determines who benefits. Communities with smaller tax bases or limited staff capacity can struggle to access traditional funding streams, which is why Kresge’s Social Investment Practice and Environment Program work together to provide flexible capital, including grants, loans and guarantees, that helps community-rooted organizations design and deliver GSI projects on their own terms. Blending philanthropic and public dollars allows cities to pilot ideas, share risk and scale what works.

Q: How can residents and community groups get involved?

A: Residents do not need to wait for a city agency to begin. Homeowners can install rain barrels, plant native gardens or replace concrete with permeable surfaces.

Neighborhood groups, schools and faith institutions can partner with local watershed organizations on larger projects like community rain gardens or green schoolyards.

Many CREWS grantees offer training, technical assistance and funding pathways for community-led GSI work. Local water utilities and nonprofits are often the best starting point for residents who want to learn what is happening in their watershed and how to lend their voice and ideas.

Q: What does the future of green stormwater infrastructure look like?

A: The future of GSI is connected, community-led and designed to solve more than one problem at a time. As storms grow more intense and rainfall patterns become harder to predict, cities are moving beyond standalone projects toward integrated water systems that link water management with climate adaptation, public health, housing and workforce development. Advances in monitoring technology, nature-based design, and workforce development are creating new green jobs and opening pathways for residents to lead this work in their own neighborhoods. Ten years in, CREWS partners are helping shape a future where climate resilience, racial equity and community well-being are pursued as one shared goal.