When Baltimore built a new sewer system a century ago, it tried to control nature by diverting the city’s waterways, like many other American cities in the 19th and 20th century. In many cases, cities turned these rivers into part of the underground sewer system by turning them into underground pipes and concrete culverts. 

Through a recently launched public art installation, “Ghost Rivers,” many residents of Baltimore Remington neighborhood are visualizing for the first time the waterways buried below their feet.

But with millions of miles of streams, rivers and creeks buried in asphalt across the country, often to build highways, houses, factories, roads and real estate development, it's inevitable that these waterways are increasingly disrupting our urban ecologies.

As University of Michigan professor Jacob Napieralski explains, these “ghost rivers” are disproportionately affecting formerly redlined neighborhoods, a significant but often forgotten contributor to urban flooding. “Flood risk is very intricately linked to history, and by ignoring history we may be missing some clues that help us move forward,” he explains.Now, cities around the U.S. – and, indeed, the world – are working toward “daylighting” these buried bodies of water.

To learn more about the impact of waterway burial on low-income neighborhoods and how cities are now responding through “daylighting” them, listen to this episode and subscribe to Next City.