Partnering with Buffalo Sewer, Arcadis, EvolveEA, and PUSH Buffalo, UBRI provided planning support and tools for Rain Check—the City of Buffalo’s green infrastructure program.

As a starting point, UBRI developed a foundational report called Rain Check 1.0 that chronicles the first generation of green infrastructure projects in Buffalo and their impacts in managing stormwater and enhancing neighborhood quality of life.

Building off Rain Check 1.0, UBRI supported the development of the Rain Check 2.0 Opportunity Report, which was recognized with the 2020 National Planning Achievement Award for Environmental Planning by the American Planning Association. UBRI contributed to this effort by producing an equitable development framework for the report that outlines ways to leverage green infrastructure to close racial and socioeconomic gaps. This involved creation of a GIS-based green infrastructure equity index to understand the socioeconomic and environmental factors impacting places with the city, and profiled the key equity considerations for the six priority Combined Sewer Overflow basins in the report.

Additionally, UBRI developed support materials for communications, public outreach and stakeholder engagement to help Buffalo Sewer build more partnerships with local residents, businesses, governments, and others. These materials include an enhanced project website, flyers, presentation templates, information packets, and a mobile phone based online map to highlight what green infrastructure looks like on the ground in Buffalo neighborhoods.