Green and Grey Solutions to Flood Control

In 2011 the Souris River City overtopped its bank and flooded the city of Minot, North Dakota and nearby towns. The resulting flood damaged or destroyed more than 4,000 homes and about 200 businesses and is estimated to have caused $700 million in damage. The city focused resilient rebuilding and recovering from the storm and was awarded a $74.3 Million grant from in the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC). Prior to winning the NDRC funding, the city was pursuing a single infrastructure solution to reduce flood risk, relying solely on a system of floodwalls and levees estimated to cost $1 billion and take more than 25 years to complete. Through the NDRC process, the city decided to take a multi-pronged approach to flood risk reduction using a system of green and grey projects.  The city anticipates that that the newly proposed network of projects will reduce the overall cost of a floodwall and levee system and provide the same level of flood risk reduction in a more resilient manner.