Water-sensitive urban and landscape planning – action strategies and measures for adaptation to climate trends and extreme weather

Background and Goals

It is a subproject of the collaborative research project SAMUWA (The City as a Hydrological System in Transition - Steps towards an Adaptable Management of the Urban Water Budget). Background of the overall project SAMUWA is the realization that the urban water infrastructure will in future be exposed to a change in the urban hydrological boundary conditions. Global trends such as climate change and demographic changes are superimposed by city-specific developments, such as increasing or decreasing populations, increasing demand for living space, decreasing water consumption per household. For urban drainage, these changes are of particular importance as they currently encounter static and inflexible systems. In the SAMUWA project, the existing systems are reconsidered and ways are presented to guide the planning and operation of drainage systems to an adaptable dynamic management.
The subproject developed a concrete and transferable methodology for linking water management strategies and tools with urban planning and design planning strategies and design approaches for dealing with overground discharges. This was applied to and tested and concretised in the two model areas Wuppertal and in Gelsenkirchen, and was described, illustrated and prepared in five steps.

Content time

to

Research area/region

Country
  • Germany
Region of implementation (all German federal states)
  • Northrhine-Westphalia
Spatial resolution 

Wuppertal and Gelsenkirchen

Steps in the process of adaptation to climate change

Step 3: Develop and compare measures

Measures and/or strategies 

As part of the research project, an interdisciplinary process model was developed in which existing methods and tools for water budget balancing and flood monitoring, for the development of flood risk, damage and risk potential analyzes as well as for the development of water-related urban planning concepts and integrated action plans were combined.

Step 4: Plan and implement measures

Measures and/or strategies 

For the Gelsenkirchen and Wuppertal model areas, the interdependencies between water infrastructure systems, urban spaces and waters as well as the urban water balance were analyzed from a citywide level. Based on this, a water-related urban development model was developed and transformation and attention spaces were identified. Finally, concrete action plans were developed for selected focus areas, which should make the water system visible and tangible again and contribute to heavy rainfall prevention.

Participants

Funding / Financing 

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Project management 

University of Stuttgart: Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Department of Landscape Planning and Ecology

Cooperation/Partners 

University of Applied Sciences Münster Institute of Water · Resources · Environment
University of Wuppertal, Department of Urban Design - Urban Scape
Dr. Pecher AG
WSW Wuppertal Stadtwerke GmbH
Emschergenossenschaft / Lippeverband

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Fields of action:
 spatial planning, urban and settlement development  water regime and water management