Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood is among the most impacted areas in the nation for urban flash flooding over the last several decades.

Germantown is positioned in the basin of Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Valley and along the historic Wingohocking Watershed. In the 19th century, as the city’s surface streams became increasingly polluted with industrial and human waste, outbreaks of typhoid and cholera spread through Philadelphia’s growing population. In response, the city began a process lasting more than 50 years to channel the Wingohocking Creek into the modern sewer system, designed to manage both stormwater and wastewater.  Today, some low-lying sections of Germantown experience dramatic infrastructure-related flooding during large storms, when underground sewers can become quickly become overwhelmed. Water flows out of the sewers and into streets and properties. Floodwater can back up out of storm drains, utility holes, and plumbing fixtures, such as toilets or drains in basements. This enduring environmental challenge has led to the devastation of homes and human fatalities.

In 2024, we developed a joint partnership with the Philadelphia Water Department, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Mural Arts Philadelphia that draws on the power of coalition-building, environmental science, storytelling, and creative practice in flood-prone areas of Northwest Philadelphia. The project brought together a multidisciplinary team including planners and community science specialists from the Academy of Natural Sciences, members of the Germantown Flood Task Force, and neighborhood artists. Over the course of a year, the team met with neighbors and city officials in basements, sewers, watersheds, and former industrial mills to better understand the issue, while  hosting teach-ins and community events at key sites across the neighborhood. This community-driven process brought the most urgent needs and priorities to the surface, helping neighbors confront the growing impacts of climate change. Out of this work emerged the WaterShed storefront, a neighborhood-based climate resilience hub.

The WaterShed, open weekly at 5300 Wayne Avenue, serves as a resource center and place of exchange. We offer flood preparedness resources, educational programming, community science initiatives, collaborative climate resilience planning projects, and a resident artist program. By combining art, science, and advocacy, the WaterShed helps residents better understand and address flooding at both grassroots and institutional levels, while ensuring that the experiences and expertise of Germantown residents directly inform how the city responds to a climate challenge more than 150 years in the making.

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For more information about the WaterShed: https://www.water-shed.org/

For more information about the flood issues in Germantown, please visit: https://water.phila.gov/blog/germantown-flooding-task-force/