Water and Planning: the Fluid Challenge
Keynote 1: Water Urbanism – Kelly Shannon, Oslo School of Architecture and
Design
Review - Karen Potter
Professor Kelly Shannon ’s research focuses predominantly on the evolving relationship between landscape, infrastructure and urbanisation. Influenced by the chronicler of landscapes, J.B Jackson , Shannon described how we can ‘look back’ at the global legacy of water urbanisms, from the cisterns and stone channels in the
Andes of Peru to the foundation of Europe’s cities, burying polluted rivers in great
Victorian pipes ‘out of sight, out of mind’, to re-evaluate past water management practices in the light of the significance of the present day challenges of climate change. From Jackson’s description of a ‘Political Landscape’, Shannon argued we can learn from past experiences of the imposed order of engineering and inappropriate urbanisation in the lowlands no longer standing the logics of nature, succumbing t o drought or catastrophic flooding. In contrast Jackson’s ‘Vernacular
Landscapes’, describes a patient adjustment of circumstances that has been made by the inhabitants supporting the presenter’s central argument and particular interest; landscape urbanism strategies and projects that work with water and topography.
Shannon continued to describe numerous present day case studies, in which water can be the fundamental structuring element in urban design and spatial planning.
She has personally led many major water urbanism projects, largely in Vietnam, also
Indonesia and the Netherlands. For example, in working with the Government of
Vietnam on a masterplan for the City of Cantho, the largest city on the Mekong Delta on the River Hâu, the planners aim to work with the forces of nature, rather than fight the flood waters faced with sea level rise.
Cantho Masterplan, Vietnam. Source: www.edgargonzalez.com
The population of
Cantho had doubled in twenty years and the swamp lands of the delta had been transformed into fertile paddy fields, in so doing dramatically altering the natural hydrologic system.
Rather than continue with the sole practice of ‘cut and fill’ (taking earth from the river to build nearby raised embankments), in contrast the proposed masterplan works with the existing logics of the land; the primitive and simple topography seen as the urban design tool.

The city was to be developed as a series of dispersed centres, with space in between for water – ‘quite the opposite way around from traditional Vietnamese planning’. Both the hydrology and the soil conditions form a ‘green-blue infrastructure’, defining safe ‘urban platforms’. A ‘civic spine’, constructed as a dike, forms the main land communication line, connecting and housing civic amenities and public spaces. Whilst the spine holds the capacity for further long term growth, outside of the spine and platforms, the rest of the territory, as in the past, lives with regular flooding. Rather than the conventional ‘landfill’ method of urbanisation, this strategy respects the existing topographical, geomorphological and hydrological conditions, the only land form being for essential functions. As Shannon concluded her presentation, we used to think that we needed to get water out of the city, we thought we had the technology and the engineered solutions, but now most of the world thinks in terms of ecological engineering – sustainable ‘water urbanism’ works with rather than against nature.

World Town Planning Day Online
Conference 2013
By RTPI member Janice Ching Yu TSE
Moderated by Miguel Lopes Batista Viegas (Portugal)
 The Planner’s role in wet weather management by Roddy Bolivar and Eric
Tousignant (Canada)

An integrated hydrologic and land use planning model: description, requirements, application and uses by Gleen Moglen, Claire Jantz and James
Reilly (United States). James Reilly was presenting the team research
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The first seminar started with a brief history of the capital city in Canada, Ottawa, and how drainage engineering could work in drinking water systems, sanitary waste systems and storm water systems. It is commonly known that flooding is one of the urban challenges we are facing nowadays. From 2000 on, four significant flooding events were recorded in Ottawa that are affecting its economic growth and urban development with huge financial implications. Is it due to too much rain or too much hard surface that brings too much water in this changing climate?
The Sandy Hill Flood Protection Scheme was used as an example to demonstrate how planners were involved in storing storm water by building a tank underneath a public park. Another example of municipal best practice that was given during the presentation was the 'Wet Infrastructure Master Plan'. This masterplan has 4 key important elements; 1) a multiple-disciplinary approach, 2) the formulation of clear objectives, 3) ownership of assigned responsibilities, and 4) a clear process for all involved in the capacity management programme. It is believed that the planner plays a key role in growth management and the urban built form with regular policy reviews and legislation/regulation reviews. Planners who are equipped with knowledge of urban flooding make valuable contributions to wet weather management, particularly to those who are specialists in recreation planning, environmental planning and the planning of climate change mitigation strategies.
The second presentation was given by Jim Reilly on behalf of his research team who used the Delmarva Peninsula on the East Coast of the USA as their study area (In
2010, size: 14,130 sq.km, population size: 681,030 with the major land uses being rural and agricultural uses). As local water quality in Delmarva affects both the
Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River estuary, the team analysed the local flooding potential through an integrated land use planning model based on the local, county, regional and federal forecasts, development plans, infrastructure and preservation with the applications of GAMe (Growth Allocation Model) and SLEUTH
(Slope, Land Use, Excluded land, Urban extent, Transportation, and Hillshade)
The project aimed to demonstrate that a fine scale deterministic hydrology assessment tool could be developed to analyse land availability for development after forecasting water quality and quantity projections for each growth scenario. The major findings were that proposed growth in DelMarva through to 2030 would not be impacted by land availability; however, such growth would increase the 2 year peak

flood risk by between 2% and 9%. The fresh water quality would also decrease by
8% to 37%.
More information on this project can be found in “Forecast Changes in runoff quality and quantity in the Delmarva Peninsula. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering 10: 1061-
(2012) Ciavola, S.J., C.A. Jantz, J. Reilly, and G.Moglen.

World Town Planning Day Online
Conference 2013
By RTPI members Acacia Hasler and B Gill
Session 2 focused on ‘smart water’ and was divided into two separate presentations given by Patrick Steele, United Kingdom and Kevan Zunckel, South Africa. These two presentations highlighted and illustrated different methods of managing water supplies more sustainably through two very different case studies.
Patrick Steele ’s presentation was titled “Crossing Cultures, Crossing Time:
Producing New Water in the UK through Recycling” . It highlighted that the economic value of water is directly linked to how accessible the supply of water is. In some countries a lack of water supply is not a major challenge or issue but for many other countries it is. The presentation highlighted that due to climate change, the UK needed to move towards having more sustainable water systems in place for drinking water by exploring and using advancements in technology, which other countries are currently doing. Therefore, Steele proposed in his presentation the idea of recycling waste water back into clean water for drinking. This, for many, is probably a suggestion that goes against the grain and as Steele highlighted brings up questions of quality and contamination.
To illustrate the workability of his proposal Steele drew the audience ’s attention to a case study from Singapore. Being an island, Singapore has very little of its own drinking water supply and in the past has relied heavily on neighbouring Malaysia to supply freshwater. In order to become more self-sufficient the Singapore government has been particularly innovative in developing and promoting the production of bottled water from recycled waste water. Using new advancements in technology, recycling waste water produces new drinking water which is actually cleaner than normal drinking water and exceeds the World Health Organisation’s guidelines.
Patrick's presentation argued that these practices could be replicated in the UK particularly as the National Planning Policy Framework in England presents the opportunity to introduce new water infrastructure. In addition, the UK planning systems have a strong focus on community engagement, which provides the opportunity to change behaviours and perceptions towards this concept as was achieved in Singapore. B Gill, a UK planner said of the presentation that she 'hadn’t appreciated the need to consider alternatives for producing new drinking water however the presentation raised the profile of this issue and the potential support this concept could have within the UK framework'.
The second presentation in the session was given by Kevin Zunckel and was titled
“Investing in Ecological Infrastructure to Enhance Water Service Delivery in the
Greater uMngeni River Catchment, KwaZulu, South Africa”. This presentation highlighted the role that the ecological infrastructure supplied by nature can play in helping town planners in water service delivery. Ecological infrastructure is defined as the natural systems that produce services which are of value to human society, such as flood reduction, climate regulation, water purification and disease regulation.
Zunckel illustrated the importance of ecological infrastructure through presenting the
South African uMngeni River Catchment case study. This catchment areas falls within a proposed development corridor and the natural system in this catchment area is under significant stress due to changes in land use. There has been a

tendency to address the stresses within the system through engineering interventions. However, as highlighted by Zunckel, this approach tends to ignore the valuable contribution made by ecological infrastructure. Therefore, Zunckel proposed two distinct areas where town planning could play a role in improving the quality of catchment areas. These were restoring and managing natural land cover sustainably and integrating ecological infrastructure into the transformed land cover.

Smart Water 1
Reviewer: Luca Lamonaca
Crossing Cultures, Crossing Time: Producing New Water in the UK through
Recycling. Patrick Steele
It is argued that could be an issue of shortage of water in the UK in the future, apart from the wellknown problem of “having too much” water, i.e. the flooding. Given that the climate change, supply of water cannot be left to the nature, but it is needed to be dealt with scientific technologies. In fact, researches allow different strategies to provide for water: technology for storage, recycling and reuse water, usually involving “grey water”, which is recycling waste water for low order uses such as industrial ones or flushing toilets. The technology promoted is for drinkable water, taking the Singapore- case: to overcome the shortage of water limiting the importation of water, the
Singapore government sponsored a successfully operation, finding a process to have drinkable water purifying waste water, suitable at the current quality standards. However, drinking former waste water, although it is cleaner than any other source of water the country, raised some concerns in the public.
Hence, the relater suggests adopting similar technology in the UK, however, in all likelihood, the public would vigorously oppose as it happens in
Singapore. To overcome those, it is suggested adopting the same pro-active attitude of Singapore authority, engaging the public at the beginning of the process and showing the high standards results. Finally it must be noted from the final “answer and questions” the high cost of this operation, which are considered by the speaker of secondary importance in respect of the relevance of the achievement and the assumed increasing demand of drinkable water.
Investing in Ecological Infrastructure to Enhance Water Service Delivery in the
Greater uMngeni River Catchment, KwaZulu, South Africa. Kevan Zunckel
The session reported an extremely interesting project in South Africa, an ecological infrastructure on the catchment of the river uMngeni, near Durban, showing how the role of nature can improve the efficiency of water provision and management within the context of planning. Those ecological interventions are essentially aimed to restore the ecosystem to produce and/or delivery services valuable for the society (e.g. fresh water or disaster risk reduction): those must to be applied along with engineering infrastructures and water storage and recycling technologies. This specific infrastructure consists principally in clearing and replacing alien plants in a catchment area responsible for providing water for three service authorities; as a result, the intervention enhances the supply of high quality fresh water which will be respond to the expected increased demand in the future and additionally with the benefit of reducing the cost of water treatment. Moreover, there are great social and environmental benefits, e.g.: reduction of water borne disease, flooding risk reduction or reducing sediment loads both in the

river and the impoundments. Most important, the cost-efficiency: this intervention costs the 10% of the current treatment expenditure. Finally, the relater highlights the creation of a large number of jobs in the medium/long period due to the adoption of ecological infrastructures.

World Town Planning Day Online
Conference 2013
By RTPI member Inge Hartkoorn
Presentation 1: Modes of Governance for the European Flood Risk Management
Plan / Thomas Hartmann and Robert Jüpner
In response the recent floods in Europe, a new EU Directive has instigated the need for Flood Risk Management Planning (FRMP). The resultant plans, due to be published from 2015 onwards, will be the first real comprehensive attempts at flood risk planning thus far in Europe. The new plans will bring together flood management and spatial planning in one process, helping to develop response scenarios.
Combining these two previously discrete disciplines brings two new challenges:
1) The coordination of water management together with spatial planning presents a new challenge whereby land either side of the flood defence will be incorporated into the same plan. FRMP thus abandons the historically divided disciplines of water and spatial planning which are structured differently. Water management planning is traditionally more formulaic, with a direct top-down structure focused on the known science. Spatial planning is more of an art form, focusing on social objectives, attempting to balance competing interests and reach compromise solutions. Such a discursive and flexible approach is an uncommon way of thinking for traditional water engineers and requires a different type of flood risk manager who will bridge water management and spatial planning, balancing the skills of the two sectors in order to make decisions.
2) The FRMP will produce flood risk scenarios based on information provided by the water managers. This will require a new type of data from water engineers which spatial planners can use to base their decisions on. Spatial planning will become less focused on a vision for the area, and more on the consequences of potential scenarios. This will give spatial planners even more to think about, as they will ultimately need to make decisions on who will get priority for flood risk management.
These results will be published in the Journal of Flood Risk next year.
Presentation 2: Under Water: How Underground Space can Help Cope with Flooding
/ Han Admiraal and Antonia Cornaro
This presentation discussed examples of how underground space can help cities affected by flooding by using their underground space. The argument was made that planners need to consider underground spaces when planning for flood risk and extreme weather events, as many cities are currently not prepared enough to cope with floods, earthquakes or drought. Excessive water poses a problem in urban areas because highly built-up and concretised areas do not let water infiltrate the soil. Particularly during periods of heavy rainfall, this can worsen the consequences of flood events, which are increasing both in frequency and intensity. For this reason, planning for disaster resilience is becoming a necessity. Some solutions to consider are:


The design of underground stations: many underground stations in Paris and
New York have steps which directly lead down to the underground, but when there is excessive rain, these can flood (as happened with Sandy in New York).
Underground stations could be designed so that at first, you need to walk up a small flight of stairs, to prevent water from flooding the stations.
 Build underground skyscrapers, so called ‘earthscrapers’. These inverted skyscrapers both restrict the height of cities and can reduce the impact of earthquakes, as building underground is more stable than building above ground.
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'SMART' tunnel in Kuala Lumpur: This is an underground traffic tunnel which doubles up as a storm water runoff facility. This tunnel helps ease traffic congestion in the city but during storms it closes for traffic to divert surface water and reduce the risk of pluvial flooding.
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In Japan they are creating underground rivers where they store water when traditional canals can no longer cope with all the excessive water.
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Underground car park in Rotterdam: This combines both a car park and a holding area in case of flooding. Under the car park, there is a large basin where rainwater can be stored when there is surface water pooling. This water is then released slowly when the flood is over.
The presenters argued that the high cost of these solutions outweigh the cost of not implementing these kind of measures because the economic loss of letting places flood is much higher. Their argument for investing in underground systems is that they can be used to discharge surface water which will otherwise flood a city, and they can also be temporary storage basins for when there are no floods.
Underground spaces need to be well planned and designed to protect cities from future flooding.