Olivia Freud ’26 MEM, Sophia Simon ’27 MESc, Salma Huque ’27 MEM, and Monica Dwight ’26 MEM maintain bioswales along New Haven streets.
Stormwater Management Up Close
A joint volunteer effort brought YSE students into the field to support the upkeep of bioswales, an essential but often overlooked part of the city’s stormwater and climate resilience strategy.
At first glance, the shallow, planted channels lining New Haven streets may look like simple garden beds, but the bioswales are designed to capture and filter stormwater, functioning as critical components of the city’s green infrastructure. Like much of that infrastructure, however, their success depends on unglamorous, ongoing upkeep — work that students from YSE’s Urban and Water Learning Communities are supporting through a joint volunteer cleanup effort.
“Leaves, litter, or other debris that accumulates in bioswales can block stormwater inflows and limit sediment permeability. Removing debris and invasive species ensures that bioswales can efficiently collect stormwater runoff while serving as microhabitats for native flora and fauna,” explains Apoorva Dhingra ’26 MEM, who has led multiple bioswale cleanups across New Haven and helped to organize the ongoing volunteer effort.
As climate change drives more frequent and intense rainfall events, bioswales are becoming increasingly important tools for cities to manage stormwater without overburdening aging sewer systems or relying solely on costly infrastructure upgrades. When bioswales function as intended, stormwater runoff that collects in them slowly filters through sediment into the groundwater or is absorbed by native plants, helping to prevent flooding and reduce pollution that would otherwise flow into rivers and streams.
Supported by supplies and waste disposal coordination from the Urban Resources Initiative, the volunteer effort gave students the chance to put theory into practice and learn about urban stormwater management through hands-on green infrastructure maintenance and environmental stewardship.
“YSE Learning Communities are always looking for chances to collaborate, and we saw this as an opportunity to bring together students interested in urban water quality to help better the New Haven community,” says Water Learning Communities student co-lead Katherine Baker ’26 MEM.
The work underscores how small, place-based actions — such as clearing a single bioswale — can add up to meaningful contributions toward building more resilient cities.
