How can people protect their cities from flooding? Several American and Asian cities have been badly damaged by floods in the past few years, and many predict much more flooding in the future in coastal areas worldwide.

Here are a few innovative, mostly natural solutions. They won’t prevent all flooding, but they can reduce its impact and provide time for people to make bigger changes when necessary.

This fairly long Smithsonian article talks about several projects using different ideas to manage water. They include amphibious or floating buildings in Louisiana and other places, and an ocean-side resort in Bahrain that uses underwater solar panels and seawater to generate electricity. (The seawater generates electricity through a seawall with columns that let water pass through it, but reduce its turbulence as well as creating power.)

The Dallas (Texas) News suggests other ideas to prevent future flooding. This short editorial emphasizes that it’s essential to take action. It discusses building roads, patios, and other surfaces of permeable materials that can let water pass through into the ground instead of running off quickly and adding to flooding. Not only is Dallas experimenting with this, but many Chinese (and some German) cities are also using these techniques.

If you would like even more ideas, this more difficult article discusses several new ways Dutch engineers are using natural processes to reinforce the dikes and other structures that protect their low-lying country from the ocean.