Picture for a moment a Hoboken that experiences little or no flooding during a heavy rainstorm. Then, imagine your fair cityscape looking a lot like Amsterdam's, complete with a series of canals strategically situated throughout the city and designed to usher rainwater not into your basement, but into the Hudson River.

Does a Hoboken not crippled by flooding during heavy rain sound a little far-fetched? Fourth Ward resident Joan Abel says the city could take a step in that direction, if it implemented an unconventional concept she calls the "Hoboken Wetland Project."

Abel, an architect who moved to Hoboken in 1980 while she was still earning a degree from the Pratt Institute in Manhattan and working as a draftsperson for Applied Development Company, gave Patch an overview of her concept last week. She says the Hoboken Wetland Project is based on Hoboken's natural, undeveloped landscape and the man-made alterations to that landscape that have made the city especially vulnerable to flooding.

Abel says that prior to Hoboken's urban development in the second half of the 19th century, the land on which much of the city is built was an island. (To see a map of what Hoboken looked like in 1879, see page 3 of the accompanying Hoboken Wetland Project PDF.) A significant portion of the city (coastal areas and almost the entire west side) is built on a filled-in estuary, or marsh.

Therefore, Abel explains, the parts of Hoboken that are most prone to flooding are areas that were not part of the natural land geography. Furthermore, she says that the New Jersey Transit railroad tracks along the city's southern border are raised and they act like a dyke, further exacerbating flooding in downtown Hoboken.

Abel says these man-made alterations not only lead to flooding, but also result in devastating consequences for the local environment. For instance, she points out that all of Hoboken's rainwater and sewage is pumped to the treatment plant in the city's northwest corner. There, the wastewater is treated along with the runoff water and then the resulting clean water is pumped into the Hudson River through a pipe that empties into Weehawken Cove.

To reduce the flooding problem in Hoboken—and Abel emphasizes that her concept alone will not solve the problem—she proposes the development of four "constructed wetlands," one at the northern end of the city, near the sewage treatment plant, and three downtown.

"A constructed wetland allows water to percolate through the soil and evaporate into the air," says Abel, noting that marshes are naturally efficient at absorbing rainwater.

"Doing this mimics nature's intention to some degree," says Abel. The idea is that the constructed wetlands would relieve the additional strain that rainwater puts on the sewage treatment plant.

And that's where Abel's concept gets, as she puts, "out of the box."

In order to channel runoff water to the constructed wetlands, Abel suggests building and implementing a system of canals. In addition to serving the practical purpose of managing Hoboken's rainwater, Abel believes the canals would serve as amenities for the city.

If they're properly cared for, she says, the canals will improve the aesthetics of the city and will provide navigable waterways for recreational, human-powered boats. Some of the canals would run north-south and others would run east-west—perhaps along 14th Street and Willow Ave.—according to Abel's plan (see page 8 of the attached PDF). But Abel stresses that at this point it's impossible to say exactly where the canals would be situated because that would be subject to engineers' design, what land the city could acquire and other variables.

Abel's interest in Hoboken's chronic flooding problems was piqued when the basement of her Fourth Ward row home flooded shortly after she purchased it during the 1980s. She says she began working on the project sparingly in the late '80s and, after earning a Masters Degree in Environmental Services from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002, "pulled it together in the last five years." Though the Hoboken Wetland Project was inspired by a flooded basement, Abel says the concept is the culmination of her professional expertise and a profound sense of civic duty.

"The motivation for this project was not simply to discover the cause of a flooded basement," says Abel, an earnest woman who can be seen darting around the Mile Square on an electric-powered scooter. "My efforts are my commitment to giving back to the city that I love."

So—the political and fiscal obstacles notwithstanding—is this project an actionable design plan?

Abel says it's not actionable in its current form. Rather, it's a concept that illustrates the possibilities for implementing what she calls "best management practices."

In order to formulate an actionable design plan, Abel says she would need $150,000 with which she would assemble a team of engineers, hydrologists, geomorphologists, and architects that would collaborate on a design that would include specifics such as the exact placement of the canals and so forth.

To that end, Abel, who describes herself as "not politically motivated or active," has presented several city officials, including Mayor Dawn Zimmer shortly after she took office, with a copy of her concept in the hopes of creating a groundswell of support for the idea. Abel submitted her presentation to the Planning Board at the Master Plan reexamination meeting in late June, as well.

"I hope that an elected official at the state, county or municipal level will take this project and run with it," Abel says.

But at the municipal level, one city official says it's too early to determine the feasibility of Abel's concept. Director of Community Development Brandy Forbes says the city is currently installing a system of sewer sensors to assess flooding.

"The sensors will be focused on surveying what the flows are at all times, most importantly during major storm-flood events," Forbes says.  Forbes says that only after data from the sensors are in and analyzed will the city be prepared to address various rainwater management options.

As for the likelihood of the city one day funding Abel's concept, Forbes says Abel's proposed wetland project would require a more detailed engineering analysis to determine the concept's feasibility and the gathering of that data is tied to the completion of the Wet Weather Pump Station, which is supposed to be finished by the end of the year and is funded by the North Hudson Sewage Authority.

"The city is not going to rule out any option," says Forbes, though she declined to discuss what other flood mitigation solutions the city is considering. "There are certainly benefits and obstacles to every stormwater solution and those would have to be considered and weighed as those various options are evaluated for feasibility." 

Abel knows it's probably a long way off, but she's optimistic that one day her vision for wetlands and canals in Hoboken will be realized. When asked to describe the feasibility of her concept, Abel replies, "We can put a man on the moon, can't we?"