Speaker
Description
This paper deals with the introduction of the "Sponge City Concept" as an innovative process of climate change adaptation in Berlin's water management and urban planning at large.
During the last decades, human-induced water and energy metabolisms tended to be spatially concentrated in built-up urban - industrial areas, by now housing more than 4 billion people. Taking into account the increasing impact of climate change, it is evident that traditional (socio-)technological concepts of urban water and energy management are no longer adequate for this dimension of human settlement and land-use. Among the alternatives under discussion, the Sponge City concept meets – though being still looked at with a certain reserve -with growing international acceptance. The concept describes a three-fold process: water retention instead of drainage, the cooling of urban heat-island by evaporation and precaution against extreme weather events. Which role does it have in the ongoing transformation of Berlin, a city with a long tradition in dealing with environmental issues?
This article combines historical and institutional analysis. The guiding questions are directed towards the relevance of socio-economic and cultural factors for a - at first glance - technological affair: A unique historical background (Berlin’s division and re-unification) and an unusually broad range of institutions were decisive for the introduction of the Sponge City concept in Germany’s capital, Berlin.
The results are built on an extensive review of literature and internet sources, on-site visits and expert interviews, between September 2024 and January 2025. The paper clarifies the path in which new fields of academic research and innovative methods of urban water management and planning were developed and adopted for their own specific purposes within the history and socio-political constraints of Berlin, such as rooftop greening, abundant green spaces, and decentralized water supply systems. As a result, the intensity and variety of R&D innovations related to Berlin’s actual climate change adaptation is remarkable. Yet, the official high-level application of the term “Sponge City” appears to be rather reluctant, low-profiled, in contrast with a positive mental perception of climate change adaptive measures by public opinion in general.
The main conclusion of this paper is that the successful application of the Sponge City highly depends on a self-supportive dynamism of interaction between different institutions. The introduction of the concept will have a two-fold impact: It supports the integration of existing methods and measures into a consistent system of climate change adaptation. Simultaneously, it acts as a communicative tool by consolidating a common understanding within the different sector administrations as well as serving awareness-raising within the general public.
In recent years, Berlin has lost its earlier role as a pioneer in promoting the Sponge City concept, due to a retarding effect of a changed local political context, while new EU and federal initiatives supported the promulgation of and a pro-active attitude vis-à-vis the Sponge City concept in a growing number of Germany’s cities and regions.
| Keywords | Climate Change; Sponge City; Urban Water Management; Conceptual Innovation; Berlin |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
