Understanding Public Acceptance of a Multifunctional Water Plaza: A Case Study

Abstract

Climate change enhances pluvial flood risk in many cities all over the world, especially in densely populated urban areas with high impervious surfaces that need to adapt to heavy precipitation. For this purpose, multifunctional stormwater infrastructures such as water plazas appear promising as there is a high competition for open space in most urban areas. Yet, to date only very few water plazas have been realized with at least one implementation hampered by a lack of public acceptance. In this study, semi-structured interviews are used to investigate how plans to build a water plaza in the city of Cologne are perceived by local residents. Factors crucial to public acceptance are identified. Experience with flooding, knowledge of the planned construction and awareness of benefits turned out to be important for acceptance, whereas social and personal norms were less relevant. The identified factors led to finding recommendations to promote public acceptance of innovative climate adaptation measures like water plazas.

The Premise of Interdisciplinarity and Its Actual Absence—A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications on Heavy Rainfall

“…Thus, nature-based solutions for stormwater management are going to be more important in addition to water retention measures in urban areas, such as multifunctional water plazas. This adaptation challenges the common practices of water management, and its implementation relies on its acceptance in politics and society [10]. Thus, the challenges of the water sector are diverse and complex.…”