Wednesday Poster Session - Source control measures - Understanding & management

Nat4Wat is a web-based decision-support tool designed to guide the selection of nature-based solutions for stormwater management and water treatment. It structures the decision process through user-defined scenarios that integrate water characteristics, management needs, and contextual constraints. Based on these inputs, Nat4Wat suggests a range of NBS—from green roofs to detention ponds—by estimating their required surface and assessing their multifunctionality, operational constraints, and costs through multicriteria decision analysis. The tool combines expert knowledge with data from scientific literature and real-world cases contributed by companies and researchers. Each case is reviewed and presented to help users compare performance and implementation options. By merging technical rigor with accessibility, Nat4Wat fosters the practical adoption of NBS, supporting more resilient and sustainable approaches to urban water management. 

SmartWater is a Berlin-wide initiative that integrates blue and green infrastructure measures into urban planning through three digital tools. The tools are being tested in two contrasting districts and comprise of a planning tool, a digital game and a flood information portal. These prototypes demonstrate the potential of blue-green infrastructure to reduce flood risk, mitigate heat stress and enhance urban climate resilience. The development process has been meticulously structured to facilitate a collaborative co-design process involving administrations, utilities, experts and residents. This approach has been instrumental in elucidating the governance needs, data requirements and communication pathways. The findings illustrate the efficacy of coordinated modelling and shared digital infrastructures in facilitating decision-making processes, enhancing public comprehension, and providing a transferable framework for urban areas aspiring to enhance climate adaptation through integrated and pragmatic approaches. 

In Brazilian cities, urban stormwater management is considered the least regulated and funded water service in comparison to water supply and wastewater collection and treatment. The lack of proper regulation and funding mechanism results in poor drainage services, which impacts water quality and often results in flooding, with negative impacts to society and the environment. One alternative to address these issues is the implementation of low-impact development (LID). Such approaches, however, suffer from uncertain effectiveness, high implementation and operational costs, low level community involvement in project decisions, poor technical standards and economic incentives. In this work, we focused on understanding how urban typology influences the selection of stormwater systems integrated to LID. To do so, we explore how economic tools may contribute to the implementation of effective LID systems that favor the well-being and share social and environmental benefits among households and communities. In specific, we evaluate a trading of environmental licenses. The variety of local characteristics of urban areas and municipalities requires solutions that combine environmental, socio and economic aspects. We argue that successful implementation of LID for stormwater management still requires robust legislation and economic tools. 

This paper introduces an integrated methodology for public space design in Het Hogeland municipality, combining climate adaptation, cultural heritage, and social well-being. The approach is structured around the “Analyse – Ambition – Action” framework and incorporates four ambition levels: maintain, optimize, strengthen, and transform. Design principles are guided by a value compass balancing six dimensions: spatial quality, health and well-being, mobility, economy, climate, and environment. Representative profiles of spatial typologies—such as streets, squares, parks, roads, and harbors—include phased strategies (“Now, Soon, Later”) to support adaptive implementation. A dedicated focus is placed on the water chain (waterketen) during the Analyse phase, where future hazard scenarios, legal frameworks, and adaptation measures were assessed and categorized per ambition level to inform integrated design principles

Blue green infrastructure (BGI) provides important services that help cities adapt to climate change, such as reducing the heat island effect and flood risk.  Much less has been reported on their ability to mitigate climate change via carbon sequestration. In this presentation, we will present the first results from an ongoing monitoring program where carbon fluxes were measured on a weekly basis in two newly built bioretention cells, two extensive green roofs and a reference urban grass lawn site. We will also consider the importance of environmental predictors such as photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), soil temperature and moisture content were recorded on site on carbon sequestration. Initial results that BGI with deep filter media, such as bioretention cells, are sequestering carbon during the first months of observation. Extended green roofs, with only <8 cm filter media, sequestered much less.