Water Resilient Cities: Increasing urban resilience to climate change through improved storm water management (WRC)

The 2 Seas region has many urban areas characterised by dense development. Outdated drainage in such areas often cannot cope with heavier rainfall caused by climate change. There is little experience in retrofitting sustainable urban drainage (SUDS) to existing urban areas: sites typically have too little space to manage surface water within their boundary. The solution lies off-site in the public realm, but this requires new types of cooperation between municipalities and owners not seen before.

The WRC project aimed at improving the adaptive capacity of cities to heavy rainfall by demonstrating how SUDS can be retrofitted in public areas normally constrained by existing uses and infrastructure (above or below ground), or ‘historic environment’ protection. The Water Resilient Cities (WRC) partnership has piloted sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) in five cities: Bruges, Mechelen, Middelburg, Plymouth and Wimereux. By working together the partners have been able to overcome institutional barriers and find technical solutions to test innovative approaches leading to reduced flooding while protecting and improving amenities, biodiversity, health and wellbeing. The project has also trialled the use of tree pits in locations within the five cities.