NOAH

NOAH helped municipalities and water utilities reduce risks of floods and increase the capacity of urban drainage systems with low-cost investments.

Project summary

Floods bring pollutants to the Baltic Sea

Climate change brought along intense rainfalls and storms in the Baltic Sea region. Urban drainage systems were not capable to handle this, and therefore floods became more common in the densely populated areas. Floods raised the risk of flushing untreated wastewater from urban drainage systems into nature. This was harmful to people and environment due to the excessive amount of nutrients, hazardous substances and pathogenic microbes in wastewater.

Holistic planning and smart drainage systems

Urban areas needed to be prepared for floods by improved planning and self-adaptive drainage operations. The NOAH project brought together nine towns and water utilities, seven academic and research institutions and two umbrella organisations from six countries around the Baltic Sea to join their forces. NOAH’s approach was to create a concept for holistic planning and implement smart drainage systems in real urban environments. Holistic planning combines stormwater management with spatial planning. This is followed by development of smart drainage systems to make the existing facilities resilient to the impacts of climate change.