DeSCIPHER - Designing Sponge Cities through Innovation, Policy, Health and Environmental Research

Project facts:

• Funded by JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
• Running from 2019-2022
• Consortium: Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA), University of Oslo (Prof. Chong-Yu Xu), University of Surrey (UK), Earthwatch (UK), Tsinghua University (Beijing, CN)
• Case-cities: Suzhou, Birmingham, Oslo

In the DeSCIPHER-project we will

• apply participatory mapping to survey preferences related to planning and design of blue-green infrastructure in parks
• study how climate change adaptation and here especially stormwater management by open nature-based solutions (NbS) and sponge-city concepts are considered in city planning and urban governance in Oslo, Suzhou and Birmingham
• assess use- and non-use values of selected NbS
• assess the potential for business engagement for different types of NBS and explore new financing mechanisms