Adaptation, ecosystem-based regeneration and rainwater management. The case of Berlin

Abstract

Facing with new global and climate change scenarios many European cities are developing strategies in order to adapt to changes. At the same time they try to ensure room for growth within environmental limits. New needs stand out requiring the search for a dynamic balance between growth and adaptation of urban contexts at risk.
Middle and northern European context, especially exposed to damaging effects of flooding, show important advances in adaptation policies with experiments on local scale. These countries are setting up regenerative strategies of urban growth within environmental limits. It means a careful use of resources thanks to an adaptation via rainwater management policies. At both strategic and project levels, the use of an ecosystem-based approach stands out and uses, at different scales, nature-based solutions (NBS) for the adaptation and management of water resources. At the same time opportunities offered by adaptation are exploited to run an urban regeneration that allows urban growth.
The article investigates the adaptive and stormwater management strategies of Berlin and their application on the study case of Physics Institute of Humboldt University, part of the regeneration of Adlershof district, discussing how to import it by a methodological and process-based point of view.