Water as Leverage - Wadden Sea Region

Water as Leverage for Climate Adaptation: Wadden Sea Region
Esbjerg
Challenges
Water District in East
Esbjerg
WITH WET FEET IN THE GROUND
The eastern neighbourhood of
Esbjerg is facing different water
issues, due to various reasons.
Firstly, the neighbourhood was a
former wetland area, but the stream
has been covered up, and housing
has been built on the wetlands
surrounding this stream. The exact
course of the stream is nowadays
largely unknown but can be traced
back in the natural topography. It
is clear that the draining function
of the stream for the bigger water
catchment area is gone. The other
water catchment area in the east
currently has a river that can still flow
into the sea — however, the current
port expansion could compromise
the discharge of this river in the
future.
Secondly, the soil consists of an
impermeable clay layer, creating a
high groundwater table and limited
percolating capacity. This forms an
issue for the neighbourhood: some
buildings have to pump up to 70.000
litres of ground water per year out of
the basement.
Thirdly, the port is a very hardened
surface and doesn’t allow any water,
both ground and surface water, to
percolate or flow into the sea. The
port is literally a ‘bath plug’ for the
water catchment area of this eastern
neighbourhood.
The combination of the lost stream,
the built-up wetlands, the high
groundwater table, the impermeable
soils and the considerable amount
of hardened surfaces, especially in
the port area, leads to flooding in a
big part of the neighbourhood when
heavy rains occur. This pluvial flood
calls for a re-design of this area of
Esbjerg and its water system in order
to prevent flooding damage.
A MIXED NEIGHBOURHOOD WITH
SPECIFIC SOCIAL CHALLENGES
The eastern neighbourhood consists
of a variety of housing typologies
and living conditions, which pose
different challenges. Historically,
this area of the city consisted
of allotment gardens with small
summer houses on the inexpensive
grounds of riverbanks and wetlands.
Then gradually, from the station
towards the east, more freestanding
villas were built on these low-priced
plots. This makes the district a very
mixed area that evolved differently
over the last decades.
Firstly, the utmost eastern part of the
neighbourhood shifted from being
a very attractive neighbourhood
towards a roughened and neglected
area. It struggles with a negative
identity: it is seen as a low-income
part of the city and with historical
issues (what issues?). It is telling
that the social housing area (name?)
is currently on the observe list of
ghetto districts* and the northeastern
housing area ‘Stengårdsvej’, just
outside the inner ring road of
10
Esbjerg