Assessment of barriers and drivers for implementation of blue-green solutions in Swedish municipalities

Abstract

Due to increased urbanisation, and climate change, there have been calls for a more sustainable management of stormwater. Blue-green measures have been recognised as a sustainable solution and a necessary complement to pipe-bound approaches. The aim of this study is to identify barriers and drivers in the implementation of bluegreen measures in a Swedish context, to increase the understanding of how they could be implemented in a more successful manner. The study is qualitative and based on semi-structured interviews. Through the lens of transition theory, barriers and drivers for blue-green measures were identified and they give an updated picture of Swedish urban stormwater management. Many factors encourage municipal actors to implement blue-green solutions, such as increased need for recreation, protection of biodiversity and climate change. Identified barriers are found within the municipal stormwater management it-self, but can also be found outside the storm water management structure, such as lack of knowledge among politicians, officials, exploiters and civilians, fragmented roles and responsibilities in general, as well as uncertainty of the effects and cost of new alternatives. The study has three main findings; Several barriers were mentioned by most of the interviewees clearly show that a wide range of changes are needed to alter the current stormwater management regime; Niche innovations are often put forward as a way to enhance socio-technical transition, but this study is that such an approach is oversimplified instead elaborated suggestions for an alteration of urban stormwater management is given, both with top-down and bottom-up perspective. For the success of blue-green solutions, educational efforts are important at different levels in the planning, building and maintenance process of blue-green solutions. Therefore, employees must have a good general knowledge of both blue and green issues as well as having contacts in the different sectors of the municipality. To conclude we argue that a transition can not only be induced by pilot projects but requires change in legal structures as well as altered financing models for blue-green solutions. Moreover, the ongoing, but slow, change should therefor probably be interpreted as a shift to a new regime, but rather an evolutionary transition where new approaches are combined with traditional, pipe-bound solutions.

Towards control strategies for microplastics in urban water

“…Point sources are both easier to identify and easier to find control measures for than diffuse emissions (Revitt et al 2013 ). Stormwater management has been pointed out as an area where unclear responsibilities are a problem (Brown 2005 ; Wihlborg et al 2019 ). Cadmium is a pollutant for which strong regulations have been introduced.…”

“…There are many sources of microplastics in urban areas, which may end up in stormwater and large quantities of microplastics have been found in stormwater retention pond sediments (Borg Olesen et al 2019), which indicates that the ponds act as a sink within the urban area. Further upstream, street dust have been shown to contain microplastics, as well as other pollutants (Polukarova et al 2020) and street sweeping can be used to prevent microplastics from entering the water phase (Vogelsang et al 2019).…”

Modelling the Role of SuDS Management Trains in Minimising Flood Risk, Using MicroDrainage

“…The UK has taken a risk-averse approach to open stormwater basins in cities, with few retrofit examples, preferring to install shallow, densely vegetated detention basins predominantly at new build sites, which are less multi-functional [9,[31][32][33]. Nevertheless, there are successful international examples of integrating SuDS into urban design, for example, Malmo, Sweden and Portland, USA, where detention basins not only provide water quantity improvements, but retain multiple benefits, such as recreational space, when dry [34,35]. Although detention basins are not the entire solution to reducing overall flood risk, they present an opportunity for reducing local, pluvial flooding by storing large volumes of water [36].…”

“…The results eliminate some of the long-held assumptions regarding the effectiveness of SuDS, and highlight the possible reduction in peak runoff that can be achieved by combining devices, with respect to their land-take. Figures 3-5 show the benefits of installing porous pavement at source control level, and detention basins at the site level, and whilst they take up a combined total of 11.14% of the total modelled site, they retain multiple additional benefits; detention basins can be used for recreational use, and porous pavement can replace existing impermeable surfaces [34,35]. Figure 3d shows that the modelled swales responded differently to changing infiltration rates, compared to other modelled SuDS.…”

Key Factors Influencing Wider Adoption of Blue–Green Infrastructure in Developing Cities

“…However, widespread adoption of BGI is hampered by various challenges, ranging from scientific uncertainty and lack of awareness about BGI, to its omission from planning processes and low confidence in its benefits. Barriers to BGI adoption [23] can be broadly classified into two distinct types-biophysical and socio-political [8,24]. The focus of this paper is on the latter.…”