Aberdeen City Council
Project vision
Aberdeen City Council is part of BEGIN because they want to be a leader of integrating blue green infrastructure into the urban environment by means of:
- Retro-fitting schemes to existing infrastructure.
- Being able to model and deliver simple solutions that
are highly effective at all scales. - Building a clear understanding of citizen engagement.
Partner background
Aberdeen City has a population of ca. 220,000 people and is intersected by the River Don and the River Dee. With £30 million worth of damage currently caused annually on average across the city and Aberdeenshire, climate change is a real driver for the use of blue-green infrastructure (BGI) in Aberdeen. Whilst BGI has an increasing presence within urban planning, it is still a relatively poorly understood, underappreciated and poorly applied solution.
Existing BGI sites include Stronsay Park for large-scale flood water attenuation and Seaton Park Wetland for amenity and habitat enhancement. Recent adaptation work includes education on community resilience amongst schools.
The city’s strategy to improve BGI is to construct a masterplan project. The site will improve amenity, education and biodiversity amongst a community with high levels of deprivation and flood risk.
With these works, the following will be produced: a city-wide surface water management plan; systems for enhanced and simplified BGI modelling; systems for improved stakeholder engagement; and, easily transferable “specimen” BGI designs.
The city’s strengths in BGI are in modelling and planning. Its weaknesses are meanwhile in stakeholder engagement, BGI design and making BGI an integral part of city development.
http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/seatonparkwetlandproject/
https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/glowblogs/eslb/2016/06/16/community-resilience-briefing-paper/