Learn about Residential GSI Implementation at SCC’s Waterwise Landscapes Tour
April 11, 2025 | By Shoal Creek Conservancy
Shoal Creek suffers from several interrelated water issues that can be significantly improved by each individual within the watershed making small changes. Property owners can help mitigate flooding and pollution by building structures – also known as Green Stormwater Infrastructure or GSI – that slow the flow and capture and filter water to keep more of it on the land.
If you’re interested in learning more about GSI and how to implement it onto your own property in an accessible way, join SCC for the Waterwise Landscapes Tour this Sunday, April 13th from 10am-3pm!
This event is an outdoor tour of yards and gardens that capture and/or filter stormwater to support a healthier Shoal Creek. The tour will feature various forms of landscaping, green stormwater infrastructure or passive land management to showcase the multitude of ways that homeowners can positively impact water conservation and their nearby waterways.
Video Transcript:
Over half of the Shoal Creek watershed is surfaced in impervious cover, or hard surfaces that don’t allow water to be absorbed. These are areas such as roads, sidewalks, parking lots, and any surface where water cannot soak into the ground.
This means that any rain that falls on this land flows over these hard surfaces and finds its way into nearby creeks, rivers, and streams, either directly, or through storm drains. This is one of the major ways that motor oil, litter, dog waste, pesticides, and other types of harmful pollutants enter our waterways.
One way to help limit the pollution entering our waterways is by adding Green Stormwater Infrastructure, or GSI. GSI combines our built environment with natural systems, to help control the quality and quantity of water runoff. By mimicking natural systems that slow down, soak up and spread-out stormwater, GSI offers a water-wise and attractive approach to improving landscapes.
In this video, we are going to highlight one specific type of GSI: Rain Gardens.
A rain garden is a shallow, vegetated, bowl-shaped garden designed to capture rainwater and stormwater, allowing it to slowly absorb into the soil, which filters out pollutants before it makes its way into our creeks. This allows for cleaner water to enter our waterways while also reducing flood risk in areas with lots of impervious cover.
