What stops rain from flooding your city?

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Rain has been a constant source of flooding in cities for centuries. We’ve gotten better at engineering defenses as people die and we needed to make things better.
Practical Engineering on how sewers work: • How Sewers Work (feat....
JAPAN SITES
Underground Water Tank Tour: gaikaku.jp/
Tetsugakudo Apartment: goo.gl/maps/orcjbFAHaLwVUdw36
Nissan Stadium: goo.gl/maps/jacAmnQQifjcJQAj9
Infrastructure Tourism: www.mlit.go.jp/sogoseisaku/re...
For any geeks like me, this is the document I used that covers the fun technical details of the sites I visited and more: documents.worldbank.org/en/pu...
TORONTO Sites
Moore Dry Pond: goo.gl/maps/MuZS2PaqSGfFaHUn6
Clairville Dam: goo.gl/maps/87gSqgP2h5qe9Zd48
Raymore Park: goo.gl/maps/Zrak6S78ZdNTWzqW6
- - - -
Table of Contents
0:00 From Highways to Hidden Dams
1:40 How Speed Fixed Sewers in Victorian London
3:49 Making Sewers Even FASTER!
5:30 #Ad So I Can Make These Videos
6:55 How Concrete Channels Move TONS of Water When it Rains
7:36 Speed Kills. The Hurricane Toronto Underestimated
9:20 How Dams save lives
10:46 Hidden Dams that Surround You
14:42 Tokyo - Apartments & Stadiums Designed to Flood
18:04 $2 Billion Underground Storage
19:13 Cheaper & Greener Flood Defenses Soon Coming to Your City
- - - -
Some videos have a creative commons license:
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creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@Lam]

Sign up to Brilliant using my link and get 20% off your annual subscription: brilliant.org/AndrewLam

[@zaj007]

Hey. Put the yellow outlines in the thumbnail. The video is great! Just the thumbnail sucks. Make it clearer what the video is about

[@JMLoope]

​@@zaj007 😅 7:59 😅

[@TommyCheese-cd2fd]

Do you think our country is about to go to war with China because of the Chinese government our is it our own government? God knows no one with any sense wants anyone to suffer

[@r.ccustomtruckingsydneyaus4632]

so why didn't they cover this or better yet drill a tunnel under the city for the water to run. look at all the space saved can be used for actually something good capping could put hole h.way overtop of that river. . silly not too

[@AMPProf]

IF ALL THE SEAS WERE INK

[@mmp0625]

I’m a civil engineer specialized in water resources and you did a fantastic job making such critical (yet mundane) infrastructure very interesting. Also great to see the actual manning’s equation when discussing open channel flow. Great work! I will definitely be subscribing.

[@Lam]

Wow, thank you so much!

[@BestMods168]

🤡

[@zenlei8258]

@@Lam It is better to build a few man made lakes to store heavy rain fall. Then release the water gradually after the rains become less.

[@PureMagma]

​@@zenlei8258in an ideal world this would be true, but in heavily populated areas where "minimal planning" occurred & prevailed for over 100 years... lakes don't adequately protect the water reserves. More specifically, man-made lakes do not protect the costs that have been expended to capture and direct storm waters. Like this video explains "money and space" are the most important concerns for successful water retention in densely populated areas.

[@zenlei8258]

@@PureMagma Some China lakes is doing this job. The man made lakes have very less water by pumping water out during dry season. During heavy rain fall the lakes will store this excess water temporarily. So less water flow into to residents area and flood can be avoided. It work all the time with proper planning.

[@eli1000fer]

17:27 *engineering an entire building to waterproof the first floor with watertight doors and reinforced windows* Andrew Lam: "small details"

[@Lam]

For this video haha

[@ethanma1722]

The production value on this is incredible. You strike a rare balance of both teaching me new things and also making a palatable video that I can watch while eating lunch. Keep it up bro

[@Lam]

Really appreciate your comment! Getting the balance right for the story was really hard. Glad it paid off and made it a fun watch for you!

[@cbsGD]

🙏

[@liquidmakor6793]

im literally eating lunch while watching this. And replying this comment

[@nickkk420]

It's true, very well struck balance

[@lucasfontainha9053]

you stole my words!!

[@erictaylor5462]

10:40 In the Early 1980's there was a huge flood in my home town. A few years later I became friends with another kid who had been crossing a flooded street. He turned his head for a second and when he looked back his friend was gone. The water was a bit less than knee deep but it was muddy so the road was not visible under the water. He thought his friend had just tripped and expected him to pop up in a second, when that didn't help he started to get worried and started walking around where his friend had been when he nearly fell into an open manhole. He called for help but this storm drain flowed directly into the bay and there was very little hope. They never did find a body. He said it was weird how you can be talking to someone one minute and the next they are just gone. There was no splash no cry of alarm, his friend was just gone. After this the city started welding the man hole covers on. Not so strongly they could not be opened, but enough that the water could not blow them open in a flood.

[@ChesterSam89]

Easily the best video on stormwater infrastructure I’ve ever seen. You really made a boring topic EXTREMELY interesting. Shoutout to all civil engineers that do amazing work that nobody takes the time to appreciate.

[@Lam]

Wow, thank you so much. I tried my best to help transform the way they see the world around them. Hopefully they can now see what's been done

[@teamcybr8375]

I really hope all of those "I would need a full video to explain" bits turn into their own videos! I'm definitely interested to learn more about these projects!!

[@Lam]

Oh they're very much a possibility. The sewer one especially as I have a lot the research down but it seems like a big video.

[@riba2233]

Oh boy I thought this channel was dead, glad to see you back!

[@Lam]

I'm alive, it just took a stupid amount of time to produce this video! Thanks for coming back and watching!

[@riba2233]

@@Lam yeah I can imagine, thanks :)

[@gradientO]

Takes time to produce such high quality videos. I'll wait

[@Dgunztube]

@@Lamplease keep it up.

[@LongIslandCityLayout]

Nah he’s definitely alive. His videos are super high-quality and he probably has a full time job outside of KZbin.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

Underrated af. This video shows the shift in the philosophy of stormwater management, from making the problem go away as fast as possible (conveyance), to holding them in place for as long as possible and not let it be a bigger problem down the line (retention). Interesting thing about Tokyo and storm management is that it goes back to the Tokugawa Shogunate period. Edo is very flat and prone to flooding and as such the shoguns started flood mitigation efforts even during the Closed Doors period. They rerouted the most of the flow of the upstream rivers into Tone River, and in part making it the longest river in Japan. Then in the Imperial era giant bypass channels with giant floodplains were constructed, which uprooted quite a bit of homes. Not to mention dams.

[@Lam]

Wow, thanks for the kind words and the added comment about the history. I didn't know that and I might cover tokyo and flooding in the future.

[@Arachnid-Man]

Bro talked about water management without mentioning The Netherlands! Crazy!.

[@delcogoblin]

I knew you were going to talk about Philadelphia at some point. The city and its largest neighboring county, Delco, are both BELOW sea level and adjacent to the Delaware River. We've had heavy flooding in the past but it has improved significantly over the years. During hurricane Sandy the only thing preventing my house from being swept away was the genius engineering of the river right behind my property. I remember right after the storm sitting at the edge watching the water speed past what must have been over 30 miles an hour. In Ridley Park there is a gigantic recreational field called the "Hollow" that sits in a massive valley, with a small river at its bottom. Back in the 90s, according to my parents, the entire park used to be a lake. Now it's part of the genius engineering that keeps the area dry.

[@Lam]

Wow, thank you for sharing that anecdote with me! I'm going to look up that right now

[@delcogoblin]

@@Lam sure thing! Just a quick correction on my part, the valley is located in "Prospect Park, PA" and officially is called "Moore's lake park". Right next to Ridley so I got it a bit mixed up.

[@filanfyretracker]

Philly had the vine street expressway fill up in 2021 I think it was. While that was due to lack of working pumps I do wonder if it partially saved the neighborhood from filled up basements. Philly also has that river nobody can spell without using Google, which is funny because its pronounced like Google. Fortunately all my area in SNJ got during Ida was an EF-3 tornado.

[@Gekkco]

I lived in Philadelphia for 21 years now and we rarely deal with flooding

[@Gekkco]

@@filanfyretracker the highway got flooded for a totally different reason, bro whats with the misinformation

[@philss77]

This video is extremely valuable for us here in Brazil 🇧🇷 . We faced the most devastating flood ever in the south of the country, and I believe events like these (heavy rains) are going to be more common. Thank you for your research and work!

[@RazzaDazza0]

Truly amazing the amount of time you dedicated to this is incredible. I also loved your detailed animations and even quick but still visible mathematical explanations. You also gave me some really cool japan visit ideas once I eventually can do that. I might suggest in the future though that maybe you try to collaborate with other creators to save you time on your hard work. I could see that you looked at practical engineering's video but maybe it might be a good idea for you to reach out for experts to explain topics to you instead of trying to understand it by reading (and losing those 8 hours for the math part/animation and everything). That hard work definitely paid off in the quality of this video just an idea to try to save you time but it's not necessary if you can't or prefer not to make your videos that way.

[@Lam]

Hey Shockwire, really appreciate the kind words and the advice! Without a doubt growing my team in the future is important. The research process is far too laborious and a lot of it is me getting in my own way. I do know how to better streamline it and asking for helping will be something I do more of in the future. Part of me though and what drives this channel is that I love figuring stuff out on my own. Hope you get to go to Japan!

[@RazzaDazza0]

@@Lam Thanks for the reply I hope you are able to build that team because considering you did this with a smaller team and the quality is already so amazing I'm sure once you are able to save yourself more time your content will just get even better.

[@givepassword]

Great video! It’s disappointing to see the video doing so poorly, KZbin needs more content creators like you! You’re one of only a handful of creators I have notifications on for.

[@Lam]

Thanks for being a big fan of the channel! I appreciate the support! Sometimes takes a few days for the video to pick up

[@Blex_040]

It might get a second spring because it's linked first thing in Tom Scott's newsletter this week :D

[@RichTCS]

Shout out to the Manning Formula! As a young civil engineer 35 years ago, I was given a circular slide rule that was based on the Manning equation and it was so intuitive to properly size storm pipes - and is just as handy today even with the proliferation of computer software.

[@bobloblaw10001]

Mannings formula is not sufficient in most cases. To do things right you also need to consider inlet and outlet control. I have found that most general civil engineers forget this in practice.

[@Blex_040]

I'm here from Tom Scott's newsletter, and I'm so so glad he linked this because this is the awesome content I'm always looking for :D It kinda reminds me of The B1M!

[@Lam]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@praveenb9048]

Tom Scott, but with more substantial information.

[@midgetman4206]

I love the both of them. Everyone loves the added greenery, and it's inarguably needed in such barren wastelands that is of modern infrastructure. I would have liked to have seen the rivers get more beautification as well, that way they aren't just concrete. The massive feats of architecture and engineering are not also a method to secure reliable function during the most dangerous of storms, they are also incredibly impressive and undeniably cool.

[@YangLeee]

I love your videos. Complete switch from old content, but still amazing. Thank you.

[@JTCF]

Oh wow, it was so cool to randomly find the inspiration for the Storm Drain location from Mirror's Edge!

[@aarong5996]

I love your videos, they're all so technical and interesting. Well researched and enjoyable, keep it up!.

[@yemreikiz]

Great work Andrew! Much appreciated.

[@JoshF710]

This was great. Well worth the wait. Look forward to the next one.

[@8.bit_gun340]

18:24 that mirrors edge nostalgia never hit so hard.

[@Xel_Naga]

8:10 its actually called a "fluvial point bar" water slows depositing sediment creating the point not a peninsula :D and the direct other side of the point bar is the "thalweg" where the water is moving fastest eroding the river back. Excellent summary of Flood mitigation

[@Lam]

Excellent, that is good to know! Sometimes I can only dive so deep on a topic so it's nice knowing the proper name

[@TheSaltyAdmiral]

1:04 Woah, that painting with the rain effects over it looked amazing!

[@dariadavay]

wow the production quality on this is incredible! very inspiring 🙌

[@jamiewebb5580]

Clicked on this video out of sheer boredom. Never seen any of your content. From the forst moment it held my attention and taught me so much brother. Thank you.

[@Lam]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it, thanks for the kind words!

[@ruangoto]

KZbin brought you back to my home and wow your videos are always excellent!

[@jdub7775]

I live in Philadelphia and had no idea we had this infrastructure for rain! This is absolutely amazing! I appreciate Philly a whole lot better! Thank you for the video!

[@aritin5259]

Great video as always! I’m from the Philippines, so sadly floods still cause many casualties here, which sucks considering we can experience 20+ typhoons yearly. I hope this type of technology would reach us!

[@icanflyfaraway]

i'm from the Philippines too, It is upsetting that every homeowners and landowners wants to pour concrete on everything.

[@FirstLast-kz9ub]

Awesome video, happy to wait for as long as is needed with anticipation for the next one!

[@Lam]

Thanks! Hopefully next one will be faster!

[@Design_Nerd]

Hey, you're back! Thank you for making this world a little better. The fact that you explain such important things in such detail and such simple terms sets you apart from other channels and makes you unique. I still can't forget your video about road barriers, I think it's stuck in my head forever (as well as your other videos). Thanks again! Keep going!

[@Lam]

Really appreciate it! The magic is making things simple

[@fresusjeak]

Great video; the editing, and I appreciate the location shots very much.

[@FordPrefect6x7]

Another awesome video Andrew! Thanks!

[@Lam]

Wow, thank you, really appreciated! I'll try to keep making content you like in the future!

[@_Davy_]

These videos are great and all, but what's the best budget dashcam for 2023? All joking aside, these videos are extremely interesting. Can't wait for the next one in a year.

[@Lam]

I haven't looked at dashcams in a while

[@GarryChoo]

Another great video! Very informative as usual! Thanks for producing this! I've never been to Tokyo but I want to go now for this reason!

[@wherearemytesticles]

Thank you for the insane amount of work you put into this!

[@Lam]

Thanks for recognizing it! It was a struggle getting this to the finish line

[@brentccochran123]

Brilliant job Andrew! You must have spent endless time making this video. It’s a benchmark!! Please keep making more videos!

[@S1lva139]

i can not express how much i love these types of videos and how fasinating they are. keep up the good work man looking forward to the next.

[@Lam]

Thanks, will do!

[@ShArUiA123]

Glad to see you back!

[@austinhernandez2716]

I love fishing those ditches and channels for some reason, it's my favorite

[@mrsamvideo]

Great video and amazing production quality as usual! You definitely can see the amount of research and time you put into these videos! Keep em coming please!

[@Lam]

Thanks Sam! Really appreciate it!

[@benashcroft4104]

One of my favorite parts of living in Arizona is that it's such a dry place, but we care so intensely about water and have such random massive rainstorms that we have retention areas EVERYWHERE, flooding and water damage in the valley is basically not a worry despite the seeming problems of such rare storms

[@muhamadbudiebasri2498]

Great video Andrew, I love it, Very thoughtful video. Keep it up man

[@MrTrevortxeartxe]

This is such a great video! I knew that a lot of engineering goes into urban design to mitigate flooding, but I had _no idea_ the extent to which it was implemented, especially in the world's biggest cities! Thank you for explaining so thoroughly. Looking forward to more content!

[@speedracer739]

Really enjoy the topics you choose to do videos on! Really unique and very interesting :)

[@AtlanticPicture]

This is Awesome! Excellent work Andrew! 😎👍

[@coverfish4672]

Wow, this video was better than any documentary on tv. For real

[@richdobbs6595]

Thanks. In a development that is happening in my town, they were putting in those brightly covered archs, and then covering them up. I couldn't find anything that described their purposes. But now it is clear that they were one of the underground infiltration systems that you showed.

[@g-rated3514]

What an informative and indepth look into this topic. Would like to see more on this, maybe with a collab from one of the folks you mentioned

[@ceremyjlarkson9475]

Great to see this channel again!

[@Metroshica]

This video is absolutely amazing. I really hope the algorithm picks this up. You obviously put a lot of effort into this and it really deserves a larger audience.

[@Lam]

I hope it does too!

[@rakib9039]

I love this type of videos

[@CaptainFalcon92]

As always, great engineering topic and a huge work put into it. Underated channel, hope you grow fast

[@chesterfieldjones1055]

That was fantastic. I'm glad I found you, tdotter. You have a new subscriber.

[@ptx172]

Damn...this is a very high quality video I ever watch. We need to support this channel. I am speechless .... I just bow my head to you. From history to design to animation to story telling it takes this a lot of time to make a high quality video.

[@xXpkMastersXx]

I subscribed for dash cams, but stayed for the new videos, keep it up!

[@BrickfordCityFire]

ALways happy to see a new Andrew Lam video in my feed. Always interesting, and the production quality is awesome!

[@Lam]

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

[@grahamw.3584]

highly informative! really enjoyed it. well produced!

[@davidvomlehn4495]

Loved this, especially that it covered so many approaches.

[@lllleeeeiiii]

This is a rare occasion where i decided to subscribe after just 1 video. Hope this video gets more impression and feel like a start to something special

[@Lam]

Thanks! That means a lot!

[@dm91214]

Such a well done video with high production value. Thank you!!

[@sebastianwrites]

This was very good... worth watching!

[@JacobVanBuren]

How are you not at a million subscribers? The presentation is immaculate and the topic is really interesting!

[@Lam]

I need to release more videos haha. Thanks Jacob

[@redviper7192]

You put so much effort and extremely captivating and good editing. My favorite informational channel by far. Keep it up!

[@Lam]

Wow, thanks! Really appreciate it!

[@georgenorris2657]

Really fascinating. I hope all city planners watch your video.

[@rikmorel4870]

Amazing video. You kept it entertaining while providing a lot of useful and interesting information. Well done!

[@Akieta]

Yooo, I can't watch this right now but I am stoked to see it! I'll be sure to watch this tomorrow

[@chucksingh9339]

Incredible video! Subbed

[@MrAP991]

First time viewer here but you earned the sub. Amazing video Andrew!

[@JohnSmith-me4ik]

Superb video. Deserves way more views

[@mybugatti100]

Love these styles of videos. Please keep it up!

[@danieljust2226]

Incredible,Incredible,Incredible,Incredible video. 5/5 100% - Thought provoking, technical, visual, digestible. Thank you!

[@SeanAubin]

This is the best KZbin video I've seen in the last 6 months! So informative and insightful! The narrative and its presentation really helped my understanding compared to trawling Wikipedia.

[@LivingInBoredom]

I’m from Houston and we have all sorts of basins for managing rainwater all over the place. As soon as I saw that soccer field, I knew that it was only a field when it wasn’t rainy :P I had no idea about the stormwater management in other places! It makes so much sense that people elsewhere would use the same techniques-after all, if it works it works-but I’d never considered it before. The water infrastructure down here is so prevalent, but I’ve struggled to find maps and data about how each piece specifically works, especially the inaccessible, invisible underground parts. And of course, finding the data still leaves interpreting and understanding the data ^^;; I’m glad you’ve put together this video!

[@sandwich2473]

This was a super good video :O It covers so much but it all flows together so smoothly The humour is a good touch, too :P

[@Lam]

Thanks! I'm trying to up my storytelling

[@robertrigby-jones2805]

Fantastic video! Audio great, editing great, knowledge at the top of the game! great content can't wait to see more!

[@kellybrown8638]

What a wonderful video. Andrew, you have a gift for teaching

[@SteveWhisenhant]

One of the most compelling engineering explainer vids I've seen in a long time. Please keep it up!

[@bobloblaw10001]

Compelling but amateurish

[@ChrisG-vq7ld]

That top gear reference was beautiful

[@Fladrif]

Awesome as always!

[@Lam]

Wow thanks! Appreciate the donation and for being a long time sub of the channel Fladrif! I hope I keep making stuff you like.

[@surviver5738]

Amazing work man, thank you!

[@raykusengsky2205]

Great video quality well done 👏

[@billm6774]

Thank you one of my favorite topics. Well done.

[@elchappii9364]

The videos you put out are truly incredible. As a person with no connection to engineering or how things work, all I can say is that they are so engaging and make me wonder.

[@Lam]

That's perfect, in many ways it's designed for the everyday person, just like me

[@smolpener7430]

How arrogant we are to go to a place for its prolific rains, just to decide the very reason we congregate is a problem to be dealt with, and how stupid we are to not see those "solutions" as the problem they are.

[@ajutantable]

Great Job on this video!

[@punxsutawneyphilofficial]

I lived in Philly for 3 years and never even knew about the sponges! That's so cool

[@ashimpaudel612]

Very awesome explanation and video

[@economicurtis]

Your cutaways are impeccable

[@Oneye.]

Fantastic video!

[@GCEism]

I live in Auckland, New Zealand, and early last year we had some of the worst flooding in the cities history. This video was so fascinating to see the ways other cities have adopted strategies to cope with increased rainfall due to climate change. I hope Auckland can take some ideas and create better infrastructure to fix it!

[@SidarthDasari]

Great visuals throughout this video. Happy to dee you pist again!

[@billcounterstrike]

It's been a while but you're finally back!

[@Lam]

Good to be back! It took waaay to long to make this video! Thanks for sticking around!

[@Drakoaran]

Your documentary films are the best :)

[@Lam]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed them!

[@shirishthakare9842]

Love you buddy. These r called holding ponds. Much needed in cities. It gives confidence too. city has water reserve within city to use in shortage.

[@B_B_]

ohoho, i absolutely adore learning about infrastructure stuff! this was very informative! it really does give me even more appreciation for city development

[@mydogvlad]

Love the pivot you've made with your channel

[@Lam]

Thanks! It's being working well! Glad you enjoy the new content!

[@xSuperFryx]

Wow this video was really good. New subscriber now!