Q&A: Putting Technology to Work for Water

How did your career in conservation begin?
As a young professional with TNC, I contributed to an unprecedented effort to address stormwater issues in Philadelphia with nature-based solutions. That project combined everything I love—fresh water, economics, urban planning and design, landscape architecture, business, politics—essentially, the intersection of people and place.

Explain why stormwater is a problem.
Humans have been altering the landscape since the dawn of civilization, changing the flow and path of water as we build homes, roads, farms and other development. Lack of planning and adequate investments have led to problems, including flooding and water pollution. Runoff picks up oil, trash and chemicals from fertilizers used on lawns and crops, which end up in rivers, lakes and oceans. That runoff becomes stormwater, one of the fastest-growing and largest sources of global water pollution.

Why is it important for TNC to focus on stormwater?
In the U.S., about 90% of urban and suburban land is privately owned. Much of that footprint is controlled by large corporations, many of which have ambitious water quality and sustainability goals. TNC’s collaborative approach to conservation allows us to build trust, which offers the opportunity to guide corporate investments to projects that advance our understanding of how to rapidly improve stormwater management for communities in need.

What are the barriers to progress?
Our human systems are not keeping up with changes in nature. For example, standards for the planning, design and construction of infrastructure are often informed by a national database of historical precipitation patterns—but climate change means history alone isn’t the best predictor of the future. There is demand for innovation, and TNC is helping to fill that gap.

How is TNC supporting innovation?
There are promising technologies from startups that can’t invest in growth unless they know there is a market for their hardware or software. Through Brightstorm, the program I manage, we’re testing the efficacy of new interventions, identifying barriers to adoption—such as permitting—and forging relationships among tech companies, civil engineers and public agencies to speed up improvements. Alongside our work to secure the needed resources, we aim to supercharge progress to benefit communities around the country and the world.

Spotlight: Brightstorm at Work in Florida