- “We know that the extreme weather has come to stay, and that is why we have launched an ambitious plan for cloudburst protection in the Carlsberg City. We will be able to retain a total of 3,000 m³ water from the quarter’s roofs, courtyards and edge zones. This equals to four ordinary 25-meter swimming pools. We will redirect some of the water from the quarter through a storm water drain, but the biggest part will be collected by a number of recreational and green facilities in form of basins and recessed playing areas, which will also benefit the city’s children and adults”, says Niels Nielsen, Project Manager in Carlsberg City.

The Carlsberg City is cooperating with Schønherr Landskabsarkitekter, Rambøll and HOFOR, the Capital’s Utilities, to protect against cloudburst in the neighbourhood. The task to protect against cloudburst in Carlsberg City has shown interesting topographical challenges for engineers and landscape architects.

- “When you work with cloudburst protection, normally there is an open framework for where and how you want to redirect the water in case of rain and storm. But here, we are on top of one of Copenhagen’s steepest hills with a level difference on 19 meters from the one end to the other in the area, and the water will thus inevitably run towards east, along Ny Carlsberg Vej and be gathered there. This means that we need to gather extremely large amounts of water on a very small geographical area. To solve this challenge, we integrate the cloudburst protection in the green parks and urban spaces, which already were a part of the masterplan for the neighbourhood. This way, we can kill two birds with one stone”, says Niels Nielsen

The cloudburst protection will more specifically happen by integrating the stormwater management into the urban spaces, where activities involve recesses in the neighborhood’s open areas and playgrounds.  For example, a soccer field is recessed, where water, due to the terrain’s slope, is redirected under a cloudburst. On all other times, the soccer field functions as an urban area, where childen can play and the parents can sit by the edge and chat.

The Enghave Park is a part of the City of Copenhagen’s overall cloud burst plan, which is implemented over the next 20 years. The cloud burst plan secures that water from future cloud bursts will be managed and reused, whilst recreational urban spaces are created, where the cloud burst solutions are implemented.

Facts about cloud burst protection and the climate adaption efforts in the Carlsberg City and the City of Copenhagen

• The cloud burst protection has gone into the design phase, and the plan is that the first solutions are ready in 2018.
• Cloud burst protection in the Carlsberg City can manage a so-called 10 year incident (an extreme rainfall incident, statistically occurring every 10 year)
• In total 1500 m³ water will be retained in underground tanks under the future recreational area. From here the water is redirected to Enhaveparken, where it is reused by the City of Copenhagen for irrigation and upkeep.
• There is money in cloud burst protection. If you choose not to do anything, the bill for handling the damages from cloudburst will amount to DKK 16 billion in Copenhagen. The last years alone the amount has been app. DKK 9 billion in damage costs.         

Source: Carsberg Byen