How Montreal hopes to better manage its rainwater with parks that act as sponges - Action News
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Montreal

How Montreal hopes to better manage its rainwater with parks that act as sponges

Dickie Moore is one of six parks the city has already created or revamped to be "resilient." The plan is to create these parks all over the city over the next few years to absorb the increasing amount of rainwater due to climate change.

Dickie Moore Park in Park Ex is among the city's 6 'resilient' parks, with more on the way

A child plays in a shallow creek, his shoes on a nearby rock.
A creek forms in Dickie Moore Park when the splash pad is on and the water flows into a bed of rocks next to it. (Kim McNairn/CBC)

A light rain has fallen and the pavement around Dickie Moore Park on Beaumont Avenue in Montrealis still wet Friday morning, but three small groups of toddlers wearing bright orange bibs have ambled down the road into the park and onto its wooden play structures.

"When it rains, we usually come here with the kids because the wood chips absorbthe water," says ValbonaShkambi, a daycare educator.

Her colleague, Yuko Kobayashi, explains that there is a another park nearby that they often visitbut the ground under its play structuresis covered in sand, which makes for a mess on any day but especially after a rainfall.

"It's safer here, too, when they fall. It's better,"Kobayashi says.

A woman stands in front of a playground backed by a mural where young children are playing.
Valbona Shkambi, a daycare educator, brings her groups of children to Dickie Moore Park to play, even after a rainfall because she says the park is good at absorbing the water. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

The park at the corner of Beaumont andde l'peavenues inaugurated last fall in honour of Moore, a six-time Stanley Cup winner and Montreal Canadiens legend wasn't only an addition of green space in the densely populated Parc-Extension neighbourhood, it's also what the city is calling a "sponge park."

The plan is to create these parks all over the city over the next few years to absorb the increasing amount of rainwater due to climate change. Alreadyin recent years, Montreal has had issues managing abundant rainfall overwhelming its sewer system and often ending up, mostly unfiltered, in the St. Lawrence Riveror people's basements.

Dickie Moore is one of six parks the city has already created or revamped to be "resilient." Another in Lachine, Brewster Park, is on its way, as well as a water retention pond coming to Pointe-Saint-Charles in the fall.

Water flows out of a splash pad into a small creek.
A garden and bed of rocks next to the splash pad at Dickie Moore Park act as a drain. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

The park in Park Ex is almost entirely covered by wild flower gardens designed to please pollinators and other insects. The splash pad at the centre of the park has been strategically placed next to a bed of rocks surrounded by plants and flowers acting as a drain. A wooden walkway hovers above it.

The goal is to mimic natural hydrological processes, explains Sophie Brard, an engineer in the city's water department.

"You try to return the water to the nature instead of putting it in sewers and grey infrastructure," such as roadways,Brardsays.

The park also acts as a reprieve on hot days, its greenery cooling the area's temperature and the splash pad an immediate way to beat the heat.

WATCH| A city of Montreal engineer explains how this park is about more than play:

Montreal aims to curb flooding with 'sponge' parks like this

12 months ago
Duration 2:19
Dickie Moore Park is not only a community gathering space, it also diverts torrents of rain away from overwhelmed storm sewers.

Chlo Fredette, a project manager for Qubec Vert, an advocacy group formore green infrastructure, says that though the parks are a step in the right direction, Montreal has a lot of catching up to do.

"Every park should be a sponge park,"Fredettesaid. "It's a great start, but we can do much more. The drainage system, how it's built right now, is not sustainable for really big storm water events."

A bright red fire hydrant sits amid flowers.
Gardens of hardy wildflowers are able to withstand the summer heat and dryness when they aren't helping to absorb excess rainwater. (Verity Stevenson/CBC)

For Shkambi and Kuboyashi, though, the park is a welcome addition to their workday. At lunchtime, the tables in the park also fill up with nearby office workers.

"It's clean, it's comfortable, it's quiet. We love it," Shkambi says, adding thecolourful mural adorning the two buildings lining the parkis another nice feature.

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