Water Plan

On August 27th, the City of Charleston hosted a public workshop to present their findings in the Charleston Water Plan. Laid out in an online storymap, the plan is an aspirational vision for the city to embrace solutions to the risks from sea level rise, high tides, storm surge, stormwater, and groundwater.

Inspired by the Dutch Dialogues Charleston, the Water Plan is a natural progression in urban planning and policy to protect the city's future. It follows a series of initiatives stemming from the Dutch Dialogues, including a rewrite of storm water regulations and updated Comprehensive Plan with a water focus. The Water Plan will be instrumental in prioritizing Charleston's capital investments and infrastructure projects tackling flooding. It will also challenge citizens and civic leaders to see flooding on a drainage basin level, rather than neighborhood by neighborhood.

The Charleston Water Plan will serve as a foundational strategy for managing flood risks and embracing water's place in the city's future. The plan answers:

1. How can we live safely with water?
2. What are our values and principles?
3. What projects can we start with?
4. What are our risks, strategies, and actions moving forward?

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Key Takeaways:

• The Plan has 3 key points: “Elevation Matters. Make Space for Water. Act Now, Adapt Over Time.”
• It divides the city into drainage basins to get the community thinking more about how compound flooding behaves on the ground and thinking more holistically about addressing Charleston’s flood risk in a more integrated manner. Water recognizes no neighborhood or municipal boundaries!
• The potential projects outlined in the report are divided into “Prototypical” (more immediate) and “Feature” (longer-range and aspirational). Citizens can go to the “Planning Areas” section that highlight specific districts of the city that they are most interested in.

Key Recommendations:

• Improve infrastructure corridors for utility and transportation resiliency
• Study the benefits and negative impacts of proposed elevation-based zoning
• Amplify a "conservation ethic" for protection of the City's natural infrastructure
• Incentivize stormwater management and inland tidal flooding policies
• Develop a comprehensive communications strategy on flood risk and flood projects
• Immediately develop comprehensive stormwater drainage models
• Develop a City-wide adaptive management program

This is a summary of the Charleston Water Plan, but ultimately it is a detailed and comprehensive document that will take the community time to absorb and become informed enough to ask questions of the consultant team and the city staff.

The Charleston Water Plan remains one of the Foundation's highest priorities. We are committed to ensuring Charleston's future honors and protects its people, places, culture, and community through resilient public policy.