Urbanization and “sealing” of cities means that the sewage system becomes inefficient and cannot cope with the total rainfall. Therefore, new strategies and solutions for managing rainwater and increasing flood resilience in urban areas are in continuous need of development. The basic research question is to determine whether using structural soil placed under pedestrian and courtyard surfaces in urban areas can increase their water retention capacity. Research methods are limited to qualitative and quantitative methods. Introducing the parameters of the maximum heavy rain recorded for the western part of Warsaw (rainfall station in Bielany, volatile rainfall from 2013 – 38.5 mm of rain fell in 90 min), around 6,502 m3 of rain would fall in total on the study area. Assuming that under the pavements and courtyards there is a base layer made of structural soil with a porosity of 30% on average, if we just used 100 mm of this layer, we would obtain over 2,218.5 m3 of water storage. In conclusion, structural soil used under pedestrian and courtyard surfaces would significantly improve rainwater retention in the study area in Praga Północ in Warsaw and reduce local flooding.