Evolution of Sustainable Urban Drainage in Malmo, Sweden

Transition from Traditional to Sustainable is a Long Process

Published in the fall of 2008, the book Blue-green Fingerprints in the City of Malmö, Sweden by Peter Stahre describes Malmö's transition from a traditional urban drainage in buried pipes towards a sustainable urban drainage in open systems. The book describes 18 different sustainable urban drainage projects in Malmö. 

Today multi-functional regional eco-corridors are in focus. One reason for the increasing interest in this in Malmö is that this type of facility has a bigger drainage capacity than traditionally buried pipe systems and therefore can be one way of meeting the effects of a climate change.

"The concept of sustainable urban drainage was introduced in the city of Malmö already in the late 1980s. Over the two decades the new drainage concept has been applied in Malmö, the technique has gradually been developed and further refined. This applies both to the physical planning and to the preferences regarding the technical configuration," wrote the late Peter Stahre when his book was published.

"The intention with this book is to describe Malmö’s transition from a traditional urban drainage in buried pipes towards a sustainable urban drainage in open systems. The transition that took 5–10 years was not problem-free. Many barriers and obstacles had to be overcome on the way. Most of these were  of institutional nature. One important factor for a successful result was the trustful and prestige-less cooperation that gradually developed between the top management of the technical departments, especially between the managers of Malmö Water and the department of Parks and City environment."

"The idea to compile this book came up during discussions I had in 2006 with my friend Tom Liptan, Portland OR. We both share the experiences that the way towards a sustainable urban drainage is not always so easy and that it often takes unexpectedly long time."

TO LEARN MORE: To download a copy of Peter Stahre's book, click here. Peter Stahre was an internationally known expert and teacher in the field of "sustainable urban drainage". To read a tribute to Peter Stahre by the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers, click here.