13.7 million NOK to BYFORSK project lead by NIVA

Last year the Research Council of Norway announced NOK 70 million to interdisciplinary urban research. Out of 64 applicants, six projects were approved, and the NIVA-lead project “New Water Ways”was granted 13.7 million NOK. The project has a time span of 3.5 years.

- These projects combine high quality and interdisciplinarity in an exciting manner.They act as an important base for developing new and attractive solutions to the complex challenges that the cities are facing, says John-Arne Røttingen, chief executive officer at the Research Council.

In the New Water Ways project, NIVA and their collaborators will investigate today´s water management, and examine how the management can be improved to make a water-sensitive and climate adapted society. The project expands the frames of today´s conventional urban water management (UWM), for instance regarding the handling of flood water, which is especially relevant in a changed climate where the frequency and amount of precipitation will increase.

- Our work will make Norwegian cities leading in the transition to a sustainable, urban water management; from drained cities to green, viable, climate adapted and water sensitive cities, says NIVA researcher Isabel Seifert-Dähnn, who is the project leader.

A diverse group of partners from research, business and public management come together in the “New Water Ways” project to find solutions to water related challenges in the cities. One main task is to identify any features of today´s water management systems that may hinder the transition to a water sensitive and climate adapted society, and work out how to cope with these challenges.

Researchers from NIVA, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), the University of Oslo, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Alterra in the Netherlands, the innovation team SoCentral, DNV-GL and Oslo Vann- og avløpsetat (Oslo water and drainage) make up the project group. They use selected areas in Oslo for case studies while learning from experiences with urban water management in Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Trondheim and Bergen will be included in the project later.

- Not only urban water managers will benefit from our results, but also companies, the academics and the public, Isabel Seifert-Dähnn concludes.