Sponge City - Adapting Cities to Climate Change.

We are researching what climate-adapted water management could look like for the future city. To this end, we are developing blue-green water infrastructures for urban neighborhoods.

Cities should be made inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. The global community already committed to this in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda, and is thus facing a huge challenge. Climate change is forcing people to adapt, especially in terms of how they deal with water as a resource. On the one hand, precipitation and rainfall are increasing in many places, leading more and more often to local flooding due to the high proportion of sealed surfaces. On the other hand, summers are becoming hotter and warmer. Drought and dryness in urban areas are on the increase and have a negative impact on the urban green or even the health of the population.

To solve these problems, we are making water management more flexible: We are no longer relying exclusively on central drainage infrastructures, but are establishing structures that store precipitation water locally and release it again when needed, like a sponge. At the UFZ, we are developing so-called "blue-green" water infrastructures and implementing them both in existing urban settlements and new urban quarters, such as the new Leipzig city center quarter "Leipzig 416" for approximately 3,700 people.

Image: André Künzelmann/UFZ