AVELA Conference
WATER-SENSITIVE URBAN DEVELOPMENT
New ways of dealing with rainwater in the city
06. Juni 2024
Nürtingen conference center + online
Wassersenible Stadtentwicklung
In the course of climate change, we are required to design open spaces for the future. The city of tomorrow must be planned in such a way that heat stress is avoided – and vegetation should play a central role in this process. It is therefore a central planning task of the future to create “water-sensitive cities”!
Rainwater should no longer be drained away via the sewage system, but the city should absorb the rainwater like a sponge and release the water back into the vegetation during dry periods. Water-sensitive cities in combination with intensive greening can make an essential contribution to cooling, counteracting extreme flooding, increasing biodiversity and at the same time significantly enhancing the cityscape.
The conference aims to show planners and decision-makers the potential of sustainable rainwater management, encourage them to rethink and make it clear that water-sensitive urban development not only enhances our environment ecologically, but also aesthetically! Current research results and strategies for urban water management will be presented by leading European researchers and planners.
Speakers and lecturers:
national:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Dickhaut
(Head of the Blue Green Streets study) from Hafen City University Hamburg will report on the “Blue Green Streets” research project. This is the largest German research project on the subject, and the techniques and effects of blue-green infrastructure are being excellently investigated in the project.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heiko Sieker
Hardly anyone has longer and more extensive experience with rainwater management systems than the Siecker engineering office. Sieker was already responsible for water management on the Kronsberg at EXPO 2000 and has continued to work on the subject. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heiko Sieker will present the various technical solutions and will not only focus on the “trendy” tree rigs, but will shed light on the topic in all its facets.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Dieterle
Although everyone is currently talking about blue-green projects, it’s by no means the case that they’re knocking down open doors. This is where the lecture by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jan Dieterle, University of Frankfurt, comes in. Mr. Dieterle will explain how to approach sustainable urban redevelopment in established administrative structures in order to be successful.
international:
Björn Embrén
While we are celebrating the tree rig as a great revolution, the system has been in widespread use in Stockholm for 20 years. We are extremely pleased that we were able to get Björn Embrén (City of Stockholm), the inventor of the Stockholm Solution, to speak at our congress!
Axel Heinrich
or a long time, only grass was permitted as a planting material for rainwater basins. This is currently changing, and now planners are faced with the question: what should we plant in basins that are sometimes very wet but otherwise very dry? The Zurich University of Applied Sciences is therefore conducting intensive research into the topic, and we were able to get Axel Heinrich, the head of the study, to give us some exciting input. He will report on alternately moist vegetation systems for rainwater troughs in the context of climate change.
Karoline Liedtke-Sørensen
Another highlight: We were able to win Karoline Liedtke-Sørensen, Head of Landscape, Cobe – Architecture Urbansim Landscape from Copenhagen! She will open up new dimensions of how water, landscape, city and buildings can find a creative symbiosis and create extremely cool landscapes!