1A Climate adaptation of urban water systems

The challenge

Climate change poses major challenges for our society, not least in terms of heavy rainfall and sea level rise. If the weather becomes even more extreme, sea levels may temporarily become even higher due to storm surges. In some locations, the effects are already visible, such as when seawater enters drainage systems, or when systems lack the capacity to cope with large amounts of rain in a short period of time.
An important part of municipalities’ climate adaptation, especially in coastal communities, is to review and adapt the drainage system.
At the same time, municipalities face other challenges, such as increased exploitation and future requirements from authorities and legislators.

Expected results

The goal of the project is to develop a methodology for how coastal cities can work with climate adaptation in several different areas simultaneously, and also include both a socio-economic perspective and a time perspective.
There are already extensive studies on how rainfall, sea level and flows as independent parameters affect urban areas, but management renewal where temporal consideration of climate change and investigation of combined effects on the function of the management system is relatively unexplored. This project therefore aims to highlight this issue and help municipalities on the path to a climate-adapted pipe network.

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