Exploring Creek 'Daylighting' Projects in Washington D.C.

Writing for National Geographic, Brian Clark Howard examines the "[innovative] techniques that mimic nature help restore open waterways, prevent pollution, and create habitats for animals."

1 minute read

December 14, 2014, 7:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Clark begins the article by examining the case of Broad Branch, a stream in Washington Creek, buried over a century ago in the name of malaria abatement. As problems, like pollution dumping into the Chesapeake Bay, have emerged as a result, " many cities have been undoing the past century's drainage projects, uncovering or 'daylighting' buried streams."

The article includes a guided tour provided by Keith Underwood, an Annapolis-based landscape architect hired by Washington D.C. to restore the Rock Creek drainage (of which Board Branch is a tributary). Underwood describes his work as "regenerative design," or a process of mimicking natural systems in a blend of art and engineering.

Friday, December 12, 2014 in National Geographic

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