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.