World Environment Day 2022: Only One Earth

World Environment Day 2022 celebrates the message that there is ‘Only One Earth’ and asks us all to do our part in taking care of it. First held in 1973, the event has grown to be one of the most significant global days for environmental outreach – and millions of people worldwide engage in the core message of protecting the planet.Over half of us live in cities, and estimates suggest that these urban areas are responsible for over 75% of our global emissions. The Australian landscape is undoubtedly affected by climate change – and we feel this in absolutes, from droughts and heat waves to storms and flooding.

World Environment Day says, “[this year’s] campaign shines a spotlight on climate action, nature action and pollution action while encouraging everyone… to live sustainably.”

Stormwater networks help mitigate the impacts of a changing climate, and urban planning is increasingly adopting green infrastructure (GI) to meet these demands. Flood mitigation and pollution removal are imperative. Raising community awareness, funding new systems, and maintaining our stormwater network can help to minimize the effects we have on our local environments – and provide long-term generational assets that will protect our environment into the future.

Naturalized Solutions & Stormwater Management

Our networks of stormwater assets are ever-growing, and our stormwater solutions are changing. Modern systems that are sustainably produced and have long design lives are being adopted more widely.As our cities embrace green infrastructure, many localities are moving towards naturalized solutions such as rain gardens, bioretention and detention basins to help remove pollution and provide positive water quality outcomes.

Bioretention is composed of media that filters stormwater runoff and slows down the movement of water, which helps to mitigate floods and remove contaminants.

Quality bioretention provides an amazing habitat for the growth of plants – which, correctly planted, have been shown to help improve water quality and remove toxic compounds. SPELBio is our approach to bioretention media, and you can learn more about it through our on-demand webinar.

To future-proof our urban environment, we need to continue to develop our green space, and the area of permeable surfaces that soak, slow, and filter stormwater. We also need to continue to capture the pollution we produce and use sustainable stormwater technology, for example filters and gross pollutant traps, to remove contaminants before they reach our waterways.