Climate adaptation in the border region with POSEIDON

At the end of September, Clean traveled to Kiel to participate in the Interreg project POSEIDON’s mid-term conference together with over 60 other people from Denmark and Germany.

Over two days, participants discussed and shared knowledge about climate adaptation in the border region and how Germany and Denmark can collaborate on a challenge that transcends both borders.

Instead of talking about solutions that will come tomorrow, we need to put existing solutions into practice. Climate measures are out there—they just need to be used

– Kasper Gregersen, Project Manager at Clean

The conference took stock of the project and its four innovation cases, all of which are currently underway, and included an excursion to a pilot plant where concrete climate adaptation measures are being tested.

The pilot plant is located at the company ACO, which collects, purifies, stores, and reuses rainwater from squares and other urban areas to water trees, bushes, and other plants when necessary. All this is done to climate-proof cities and make them greener and cooler.

During the conference part, concrete solutions were discussed, as well as how we as a society can get these solutions out into the world.

The conference gave a boost to Danish-German cooperation and demonstrated that there is a willingness to adapt to climate change among researchers, authorities, and businesses in the border region

– Kasper Gregersen, Project Manager at Clean

The four cases

Civica, Odense

There are challenges with rising groundwater in one of the housing association’s departments. This creates a breeding ground for damp basements and thus a poor indoor climate. Together with Vandcenter Syd, Civica will carry out drilling and create hydrological models that can show where climate adaptation measures need to be implemented.

Rømø, Tønder

The sea is rising, which means that many vacation home plots are flooded when the ditches are not cleaned. Some ditches drain water into the sea. Others are reed ditches. The area is flat and the ditches generally have a slight slope, which means that the water flows slowly. Therefore, it does not take much resistance to stop the water and cause flooding. Cleaning is the responsibility of the vacation home owners, but they are not necessarily aware of this. Therefore, Tønder Municipality, together with NIRAS, has started a citizen involvement project that will result in a catalog to help the owners.

Eiderstedt – dike

The dikes in northern Germany/Denmark are often manually operated and must be closed/opened when major storms hit the west coast. This is to protect inland areas. At Eidersted Digelaug, the Coastal Authority and Hydro&Meteo (DE) will look at the possibilities of digitizing some of the sluices together with weather data.

Husum Nets

The groundwater level in northern Germany has fallen in recent years and reached almost critical levels during the dry summer of 2018. To enable early warning systems, an AI model will be developed that combines historical measurements and stochastic seasonal precipitation forecasts to predict groundwater levels up to six months in advance.

For more information, follow POSEIDON’s LinkedIn profile.