Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities (2014-2017)

Godecke Blecken was granted 3 million SEK by Norrbotten Research Council as part of a targeted investment in promising young researchers. Godecke has received maximum support for the period 2014-2016, to support innovative research and development at the university in parallel with its own qualification and development of the county.

The urban drainage system of today is largely based on conveyance in the sewers. Water that can not be collected and used locally in growing urban areas is in risk of creating increasing environmental hazards and deteriorating living environment. By means of different concepts, future stormwater systems need to create a stormwater management that functions technically and, simultaneously, enriches our environment as well as delivers ecosystem services.

By re-creating natural processes that are integrated in the urban landscape, green infrastructure potentially may reverse stormwater management from being a problem into a resource for the entire city. There are still challenges to be solved related to the implementation and successful operation of green infrastructure in (Northern) Sweden.

Three areas have been identified where further research and development is needed. These are:

Function of green infrastructure in Sweden's cold climate - evaluation, implementation and maintenance

- Evaluation of green infrastructure - seasons in the field. Biofilters, infiltration systems, wetlands, green roofs, etc. will be investigated in different seasons.
- Adaptation of green infrastuktur to winter climate. Here, the influence of temperature and winter road deicing, as well as the adaptation of infiltration facilities, selection of varieties and evaluation of green roofs will be studied both in the field and lab environment.

Long-term function of green infrastructure - implications regarding maintenance

- Long term function - infiltration systems, wetlands and ponds. A number of facilities will be explored. The purpose is to document maintenance carried out and the relationship between lack of maintenance and poor functioning.
- Can (original) function in non-functioning facilities be recovered? Here, different methods for reconstructing the infiltration capacity of existing facilities are to be tested and evaluated.
- Maintenance operations for settlement ponds and methodology for risk assessment of sediments. The aim is to develop a simple methodology that reduces the necessary costs of analysis before draining the ponds, by utilizing passive samplers.

The value of green infrastuktur - not just storm water management

- Development of biodiversity in green infrastructure. Here, biodiversity will be investigated in older stormwater facilities (> 20 years) to evaluate changes in time during the entire period of operation, from the past to the present. The question is whether green infrastuktur has the potential to increase urban biodiversity throughout the life cycle.
- Evaluation of risks and conflicts between technical function and habitat function. The purpose is to investigate whether purification and accumulation of pollutants affect the fauna and if there is a risk of pollutants contamination spreading to the food chain.
- Greenhouse gases and green infrastructure. Green infrastructure's impact on carbon accumulation will be examined. Is it negligible or not?

Godecke-Tobias Blecken, Laila Søberg och Ahmed Al-Rubaei