Climate change presents risks to our natural and built environment and to all of us. The South Washington Watershed District (SWWD) worked with Barr to develop a plan to improve the resiliency of the district and its communities in Washington County, Minnesota. Barr developed and facilitated a two-day planning workshop with policymakers and interested parties to identify specific climate hazards and risks to their communities and to develop high-level prioritized strategies to respond to those risks.
Using the workshop feedback, Barr developed recommendations to address increased risk due to climate change to the groundwater, natural resources, and storm sewer infrastructure in the SWWD. We investigated the risk of climate change to 25,000 storm sewer pipes in the district by assessing the likelihood of pipe failure and the potential consequences of pipe failure. Using that analysis, Barr identified high-risk pipes and culverts throughout the storm sewer systems of the SWWD cities and townships and made recommendations to reduce infrastructure failure risk.