LIFE Urban Runoff

The handling of rainwater is the job of those whose land it is falling on, which by definition means that it is a public and a private task at the same time, needing a complex legal and infrastructural background to control. A paradigm shift is needed in urban rainwater handling so it can be kept and used locally, preparing for the effects of climate change (such as urban floods and droughts). Rainwater recycling can have multiple positive ecological and economical effects on cities, for example in reducing the urban heat island effect or by providing the water supply for green public spaces. For effective adaptation it is necessary to include all private and public urban rainwater handling parties, define their scope of responsibilities and start searching for new innovative ways of them working together.

Our project aims to strengthen and develop the collaboration between the regional and national climate adaptive urban stormwater handling partners.

In this work PAD Foundation:

• created topic specific, national and district based involvement maps,
• strengthen the forming collaboration between parties working in the field of urban rainwater handling by addressing them and collecting their views and suggestions on the subject,
• developed thematic operative organizational cooperation development workshops for local municipalities with different environmental, built and infrastructural circumstances – mountainous, inner-city densely built-up areas and urban peripheries – and implemented them as a pilot in the three Budapest districts participating in the project,
• detected system-wide obstacles of climate adaptive urban rainwater handling and try to define the scope of responsibilities of the concerned parties so discussion between them, starting pilots, making new (or changing) policies in consensus will be easier in the future