In the Climate Resilient Neighbourhood we wish to create a robust district that is adapted so that it can cope with the rising volumes of rain in the future. We are therefore constructing cloudburst roads that can carry convey water from torrential downpours safely through and out of the neighborhood.
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A cloudburst road is a public road that can carry cars, cyclists and pedestrians, but at the same time is able to function as a channel conveying the rainwater in torrential downpours safely away from the neighbourhood.
This is to be done in the Climate Resilient Neighbourhood by the water being carried along Tåsingegade and Kildevældsgade down to Østerbrogade, where it is collected in a cloudburst pipe that discharges into the harbour. In the longer term, Nygårdsvej and Landkronagade will also be arranged as cloudburst roads.
At the same time, nature will be brought into the city. Tåsingegade will become a green route, which can accommodate social and recreational activities, while Bryggervangen and Skt. Kjelds Plads are to be transformed from a busy traffic artery into the green heart of the neighbourhood.
Cloudburst roads are to carry rainwater from high-lying areas – around Tåsinge Plads, Skt. Kjelds Plads and Bryggervangen – safely through the neighbourhood and out into the harbour, so that we do not have floods in the more low-lying areas.
The cloudburst roads are to be designed so that the water stays on the road and is not pushed out against the facades of buildings and basement steps. Today road humps and the raised middles of the road in side streets act as barriers, causing the water to back up and be forced out against the facades of buildings, where it can cause problems.
By making continuous pavements along the whole road, we create a way for the water to flow unobstructed down the cloudburst roads to collect in a stormwater pipe beneath Østerbrogade.
In many places in the neighbourhood the pavements are more than 3 metres wide, and in some places they are as much as 6 metres wide. We can create further capacity to manage stormwater by strengthening part of the pavement areas and transforming it to roadside beds, front gardens and green spaces. This means that there is enough space to create continuous green lines, without this needing to be at the price of a single parking space. Instead we will arrange the roads so that we create new space for green elements.
In fact, in this way we both achieve better parking conditions and at the same time create new and better frameworks for the everyday lives of the residents. On selected routes we can increase the number of parking spaces, enabling us to make larger green spaces elsewhere in the neighbourhood.
Tåsingegade has come furthest in planning. The vision here is to create a continuous green line running the whole way from Skt. Kjelds Plads to Østerbrogade. The practical design of the green elements takes place in close dialogue with the individual landowners.
A large number of analyses have been performed in the Climate Resilient Neighbourhood which, in various ways, help to identify opportunities and limitations in efforts to make the Climate Resilient Neighbourhood a showcase of how we protect a neighbourhood against future climate change.
The capital area utility company HOFOR and the City of Copenhagen are well under way in climate-proofing the city, but there is also a need for private areas to respond to the climate challenges we face together.
On a political initiative from the City of Copenhagen, a working group known as “Private Partnerships” has been established. Under the name “Create Space for Rainwater”, the aim is to inform and guide on the options private individuals have in relation to establishing climate change adaptation projects on private common roads.