Kent County Council
Project vision
Kent is a partner in BEGIN because they want to gain more learning experiences in:
- retrofitting by looking at features incorporated into the highway & public realm to benefit management of surface water.
- increasing new development, by building master-planned communities with sustainable drainage systems.
Partner background
Situated in the south-east corner of England, Kent comprises a variety of high-quality landscapes and seascapes, a result of its varied geology, 350-mile coastline, landscape history, southerly location and proximity to the continent.
Kent County Council is committed to ensuring that communities benefit from increasing prosperity by being in work, being healthy and enjoying a high quality of life through protecting and sustaining the physical, cultural, social and environmental fabric of the county.
Climate change is expected to reduce the liveability of urban environments for communities across Kent. Increased frequency of intense rainfall events, often associated with summer thunderstorms, has led to more frequent flooding of residential and commercial properties across Kent. Surface water flooding is estimated to affect 76,000 properties within Kent, of which approximately 60,000 are residential.
The existing urban environment and infrastructure don’t have the capacity to deal with unprecedented climatic events, which presents challenges for reducing flood risk.
BEGIN presents the opportunity to re-design small ‘orphaned’ urban green spaces, such as Pocket Parks and Village Greens, to manage floodwater, improve the ecological value and enhance the amenity of the local areas to create more liveable environments for communities.
Learn more about Kent's experience through BEGIN's Blue-Green Cities in the Spotlight Series.