Water-sensitive city planning - measures for sustainable, climate-adapted settlement water management

Summary

Climate change will result in increasingly heavy rainfall in future. So far, however, the problem has not been quantified and city planning has no countermeasures at its disposal. The research project's aim is to create activity recommendations for water-sensitive city planning that takes into account urban water circulation in urban planning, urban construction and urban landscaping. To this end, the currently available tools and planning processes were examined in regard to their adaptability to climate change and its inherent consequences. The results of the practical analysis were subjected to practical tests in the partner parishes Bochum, Herne and Essen. In collaboration with the participants on site, models for canalisation systems (sewage network models) and surface models were created and applied with the aim of developing solution concepts for various water-management problems. The activity recommendations derived provide organisational (legal foundation, communication) and technical information in the form of best-practice examples for case-specific planning practice. The technical information also facilitates assessment of local excess retention risk.

Results:

• In future, it will become necessary in city planning to avoid areas prone to flooding. An exchange of knowledge and closer cooperation between the involved disciplines settlement water management, city planning and the social sciences is required.
• The recommended legal tools and processes stipulate the specification of green spaces and areas for water management as well as indication of areas subject to flooding in construction-site and surface-usage plans. In addition, the design of open spaces, the ground's water retention capacity, drainage and rainwater management are to be specified in local ordinance.
• The recommended technical measures focus on leaching (including basin and rubble drain systems), drainage (various trench and ditch systems), retention (including rainwater basins, retention filters, greening and small-scale basins) and use of rainwater in households and for green space irrigation.
• Inclusion of residents can be achieved through structural methods (incentives, competitions, sponsorship etc.), directed communication such as brochures and other media coverage, information events and through voluntary commitments, feedback techniques (water meters) and awareness-promotion methods (round tables, workshops, open councils).

Project Participants

Implementing Institution

Institut für Siedlungswasserwirtschaft der RWTH Aachen

Cooperation partner

Universität Duisburg-Essen, Zentrum für Wasser- und Umweltforschung (ZWU)

Promotion

Promoting institutions

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Promotional program

Klimazwei

More Project Informations

Project title:  Verbundvorhaben: Wassersensible Stadtentwicklung - Maßnahmen für eine nachhaltige Anpassung der regionalen Siedlungswasserwirtschaft an Klimatrends und Extremwetter, Teilprojekt 'Koordination, Siedlungswasserwirtschaft und Siedlungsplanung'

Project number:  01LS05017

Project period:  2008 - 2010

Project region:  Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia)

Project contact:

Herr Dipl.-Ing. Siekmann