Water in the Sustainable City 2014
Elke Kruse, Diploma Engineer / landscape architect, Hafen City
University
Actions driven by the will to become a modern and
sustainable City
There are many reasons to change and develop. You can wait until something
happens to drive change or you can be proactive and take action before an event
occurs. Many cities want to be in the fore front and obtain state of the art solutions in advance. The concept of sustainable development was born in the 80’s as a response to the environmental issues that more frequently occurred.
Hamburg and Copenhagen are two cities that are driven by the desire to be a modern city and have been working proactively with sustainable development. The cities are both expanding and are affected by climate change, and they want to solve this
challenge in a modern, sustainable and long term way.
We will also hear about a district in Gothenburg that want to be climate smart and a summary about how all of the cities have gone about their process of change.
About the conference
Gothenburg will celebrate 400 years as a city in 2021, but the celebrations have
already begun, with different themes about the city being highlighted each year.
This year the theme is water. So this conference is part of celebrating Gothenburg as a city and also as a starting point for planning the future of Gothenburg, where water has a huge part. The conferences purpose is to highlight experiences, from around the world and nationally, on urban development with focus on water issues.
With water we mean rain water, water related consequences due to climate change, streams and lakes.
This first day will be dedicated to different international cities, who will tell us about what they have done, why, and how, in regards of the water issues above. The cities presented are Nanjing, Dordrecht, London, Seattle, Hamburg and Copenhagen. These cities have come a long way but often for different reasons and with different varying solutions. We have identified three main driving forces. These are climate change and adaptation, environment and modern and sustainable city. The day will be divided into three sessions, according to the driving forces.
So welcome to this conference about water, climate change and the sustainable city, now and in the future.
