Storm Water Management with BlueGreen Infrastructure in Urban Planning : A case-study in Krokom, Sweden

Abstract: As changing climate and growing urban populations present new challenges for managing both the quantity and the quality of storm waterin cities, nature-based solutions such as blue-green infrastructure arebecoming widely considered as an alternative to grey infrastructure. The benefits, above providing storm water management at a lower cost, are increased ecosystem services. One of such solutions is SuDS: a collective name for drainage systems thatare designed to manage the quantity of runoff, protect or enhance water quality, increase amenity and foster biodiversity. In Sweden there is a lack of research on applying nature-based solutions in planning urban water management. This case study aims to contribute with knowledge of how working with blue-green infrastructure in a systematic way effects the outcome of urban planning and what ecosystem gains can be expected. ASuDS design was created following the SuDS guidelines for a greenfield residential area in the city of Krokom. The design was then compared with the original proposal by the municipality.The results show that the systematic method that SuDS brings to watermanagement planning leads to a different design of a residence area than what traditional methods produce. At the same time the ability to handle extreme rain event is at least as robust, with the ability of the system to generate other ecosystem services and further strengthen the resilience of the area. Further research is needed for a more detailed analysis of the generated ecosystem services.