Combined management of stormwater and snowmelt water in an urban environment: nature-based solutions and dimensioning issues (HuHa)
HuHa
Funders
Project information
Project duration
-
Funded by
European Structural Funds - European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
Project coordinator
University of Oulu
Unit and faculty
Contact information
Project leader
- Senior research fellow
Other persons
- Assistant professor (Ten. track)
- Senior Research Fellow
- Associate Professor (Tenure Track)
Researchers
Project description
Qualitative and quantitative management of stormwaters and snowmelt waters is increasingly important with changing climate. The needs for qualitative control are also defined by our increasing understanding of urban water quality and their possible environmental impacts. Nature-based solutions are used more and more as a water treatment method. They are also increasingly being proposed as a solution for urban stormwater treatment. However, there is very little information about their functionality in the cold urban environment. Especially there is need to know how well they can work and clean stormwater and snowmelt water in cold conditions all year round. Due to climate change, wintertime snow melt will be more probable even in Northern environment. The adequacy of the capacity of stormwater networks is another critical part of urban water management. The amount of stormwater is expected to increase in the future due to climate change by approximately 20%: it is important to look for bottlenecks in urban areas, which may be risk areas in future rain events.
Project actions
The aim of the project is to find out:
1. How tested nature-based solutions can be used to clean stormwater and snow dump waters in northern conditions, and which factors are important to consider. The information can be applied more widely in northern urban areas when thinking about solutions for treating stormwater and snowmelt water.
2. Obtain very important information on stormwater dimensioning from quantitative planning calculations, which should be considered in the planning and changes of the urban area, to minimize costly urban flooding situations. With the help of modeling, we get access to the changes caused by climate change, so that we can better prepare for them.
The project is implemented in 5 work packages:
TP 1: Combined snow dump meltwater and year-round stormwater treatment pilot
TP2: Monitoring of stormwater treatment structures built in the northern urban area
TP3: Capacity limits of stormwater systems: the influence of the past in a changing cityscape
TP4: Assessing the resiliency of stormwater management in the face of emerging climate change
TP5: Project management and communication