WATER RESILIENT CITIES (Swedish cities and the need for the integrated urban water management with focus on flood resilience)

Misagh Mottaghi, 2015.

Summary

In order to make the cities of Skåne more resilient to the climate change and its water related environmental pressures, storm water drainage systems must be managed in a way that makes them more functional in a dynamic way. The urban water management should be designed under influence of transscale thinking and through an appropriate collaboration. Different planning strategies and highlighting the water challenges in all scales of planning are the tasks which should be prioritized by the municipalities and sometimes even by the government. Integrated urban water cycle management and urban planning is the key to success and achieving sustainable urban environments. Sustainable planning is only achieved through combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches and it is different from city to city. In order to reduce the negative impacts of the climate change, cities need to move towards ecological urbanism.

Since urban water governance plays the most critical role in improving the sustainability of urban water infrastructure, it is essential for cities to recognize the existing gaps and try to bridge them. Cities need a long-term vision and implementation plan. If political leaders wait, the cost of inaction will be very high and more expensive adaptation measures will be necessary.

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