Stream Smart: nature-based problems, climate-resilient solutions
- Zoe Sreden
- Mar 28
- 4 min read
Sustainability and data fellow Zoe Sreden discusses nature-based solutions to climate change and how matching the local environment can increase community resilience. They expand on Stream Smart infrastructure as a solution and how those lessons can be brought to other climate solutions.
As climate change progresses, issues of flooding and sea level rise are increasing in impact on communities in Maine, particularly along the coast. These impacts are heightened by aging and inadequate infrastructure in many communities. This old infrastructure often allows storm water to collect and prevents it from receding at a natural rate. Towns in the midcoast identified improving roads, culverts, and other infrastructure to be more flood resistant as one of their top three priorities when it comes to addressing climate change in their community according to recent survey I conducted directly with towns in Sagadahoc County.
An example of these impacts comes from the town of Phippsburg, Maine, in Sagadahoc County. Phippsburg recently completed a hydrology and hydraulics study of Sam Day Hill Road through a Community Action Grant provided by the Community Resilience Partnership Program. This study done by GEI consultants, a consulting engineering and environmental firm, found that any significant storm event would result in major flooding of the road (GEI Consultants Inc, 2024). These findings are particularly impactful because Sam Day Hill Road is where Phippsburg’s transfer station is located, the only trash collection site in the town. The road also serves as one of the few roads that connect the eastern side of the peninsula to the main road that runs through the peninsula, an important evacuation route during hazard events. The study found that the flooding issue is mostly caused by undersized culverts along the eastern tract of the road (GEI Consultants Inc, 2024). The town is now one of many that are looking to replace this old infrastructure to create a more resilient community.
To replace and revamp these insufficient, aging, and deteriorating culverts, many towns and private landowners are turning to a program that focuses on nature-based designs. Maine Audubon’s Stream Smart program has created a framework and guidelines for culverts and water crossings that address the needs of the surrounding ecosystem. The goal of the Stream Smart program is to replace insufficient culverts and water crossings with structures that allow for more natural stream flow and address habitat fragmentation that has historically occurred due to these old culverts.
The Stream Smart program is based on four principles of culvert design called the four S’s:
The culvert must SPAN the stream, allowing for passage of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife.
The culvert has to be SET at the right elevation.
The SLOPE of the culvert must match the stream.
There must be SUBSTRATE (natural sediment) in the crossing.
These principles “let the stream act like a stream and make the road invisible to the stream.” (Maine Audubon, 2025). There are also four types of culvert design that Stream Smart uses to implement their principles. These include a concrete block abutment with timber deck bridge, a bottomless concrete arch, a bottomless metal arch, and an embedded concrete block culvert. The designs vary based on the needs and functionality of the roads and crossings they are meant to replace. Maine Audubon offers technical assistance in planning for a Stream Smart culvert project.
These designs not only aid in ecosystem repairs but are also typically more flood and storm resistant (Maine Audubon, 2025). The open structure allows water to flow through more freely and recede faster during storm events, limiting erosion and damage to the roads above the culverts. Additionally, the lack of corrosive material on the bottom like traditional pipe culvers means the stream smart designs take far longer to degrade.
It is a fortunate coincidence that redesigning our infrastructure to more closely resemble the natural environment it interacts with results in greater climate resilience. This nature/resilience praxis is the basis for many nature-based solutions to climate change and should inspire more creative and ecosystem focused thinking when it comes to climate resilience projects. There are already many examples of these solutions that mimic natural processes including manmade eel grass fields and oyster reefs that act not only as wildlife habitat but also wave dampeners and erosion prevention. Ecosystems are already naturally resilient to many different environmental stressors, particularly in the northeast. Allowing and encouraging our infrastructure to match those systems will help us tolerate those same stressors, limiting damage and benefiting the wildlife and ecosystem at the same time.
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About Zoe
Zoe grew up in Bath, Maine. They recently graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s in geography and minors in global studies, community and international development, and green building and community design. While in school Zoe served as the president of the timbersports team and team lead for the Vermont Zoning Atlas project. It was through their internships with the Vermont Zoning Atlas and the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission that they found their interest in planning, focusing specifically on issues such as sustainable transportation, walkable community design, and affordable housing. Their work with the Vermont Zoning Atlas also sparked an interest in open research and data communities with the goal in increasing accessibility to these resources. Post graduation Zoe worked at the Bath Area Food Bank and is hoping to use that experience to inform how structural support through planning can increase the availability and accessibility of needs-based resources to communities in coastal Maine. In their free time Zoe enjoys woodworking, sailing, fishing, and sea glass hunting.