geografie luoghi spazi città

Fonte: Morten Mejlhede Rolsted, www.mmmr.dk.
Fig. 2 – The flooding of Lyngbyvej after the
storm of the 2nd of July 2011.
However, a series of storm-water events fundamentally
challenged the sectorial conception of the water
infrastructure as a discrete physical network that
could be clearly demarcated from the surrounding urban
fabric: roads, parks and entire neighborhoods
were flooded. The traditional water infrastructure was
thus deemed inefficient in dealing with storm-water
events and so were the corporatized utilities which had
been established to optimize this infrastructure. The
limitations of the sectorial assemblage were thus increasingly
articulated, and the focus on cross-sectorial,
above ground integrations of water, promoted by the
place-making assemblage, was re-inforced.
In 2011, the Skt. Kjelds neighborhood of Copenhagen
was largely flooded (Fig. 2). Pictures of the flood
covered the first page of most Danish media and the
location was translated into a critical urban junction.
The municipal response to this junction was an ambitious
climate adaptation strategy. Its objective was to
provide a showcase for how to disconnect 30 per cent of
rainwater from traditional piped sewage infrastructure
by increasing retention capacity and infiltration and developing
green waterways on the surface (Fig. 3).
The climate adaptations strategy was furthermore
linked to a boarder urban regeneration program aimed
at engaging with citizens in new ways and thereby reinforcing social cohesion in an area characterized by
diverse and stratified social groups. Cross-sectorial concerns such as greening, recreation and social cohesion
by far transcended the legally-defined objectives and responsibilities of the corporatized utility
whose role in developing the climate-neighborhood strategy remained limited. This provoked a tenacious
endeavor by the Copenhagen water utility and municipality to influence new political processes facilitating
cross-sectorial collaborations for the implementation of the climate adaptation strategy. This effort was
largely supported by the national organization of Danish Water Utilities (DANVA) and the national organization
of Danish municipalities (KL), both informed by similar experiences across the country.
Fig. 3 – A vision for the future of Skt. Kjelds Square at the heart of the climate neighborhood by Tredje Natur.
Fonte: Københavns Kommune, http://www.klimakvarter.dk/wp-content/2012/07/klimakvarter_samlet_publ_netversion.pdf.
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