Our projects> Exploiting the Synergies between Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Urban Farming in Vinh Yen City, Vietnam

Exploiting the Synergies between Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Urban Farming in Vinh Yen City, Vietnam

Closed

Adaptation

Urban development

Call 5

Time consumed

Start: 28-Jan-16 End: 31-May-19

Lead Nordic partner

NIRAS A/S

Country of Lead Nordic partner

Denmark

Local partner(s)

Institute for Environmental planning, Urban and Rural Infrastructure (IRURE) - Vietnam Institute for Urban and Rural Planning (VIUP) , Department of Finance and Planning (Vinh Yen City People's Committee)

NCF grant size

480,000

Total project cost

620,000

Methods

Training, Urban drainage systems, Urban farming

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Description

The project pilots the synergies between handling rainwater through Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and using SUDS for small-scale urban farming.

SUDS covers the handling of rainwater on the surface and is often co-designed with urban green infrastructures. In several cities in Vietnam, people have begun to grow vegetables, for example, on rooftops and in backyards. This project builds on the potential to combine SUDS with... The project pilots the synergies between handling rainwater through Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and using SUDS for small-scale urban farming.

SUDS covers the handling of rainwater on the surface and is often co-designed with urban green infrastructures. In several cities in Vietnam, people have begun to grow vegetables, for example, on rooftops and in backyards. This project builds on the potential to combine SUDS with urban farming elements and educate the users in maintaining the system while they use it for urban farming.

The objective of the project is to implement concrete SUDS designed with small scale urban farming elements, that besides making the urban area more resilient towards flooding, also will benefit a local community’s social resilience by providing the local people, especially women the opportunity to grow crops such as vegetables, herbs and spices. The local women are empowered when the crops are either used as household supplements or as products to be sold at a local market. Furthermore, the social elements of meeting other locals increase the social resilience of the community.

The project will evaluate SUDS effectiveness in mitigating impacts in floods, define which crops can be farmed in different types of SUDS, evaluate small-scale urban farming's financial contribution to households, and evaluate urban farming's contribution to creating social resilience.

Text book guidelines on SUDS and small-scale urban farming for urban planning, as well as training and awareness-raising material for other Vietnamese cities is developed during the project, and will be distributed by the Ministry of Construction (MOC).

To avoid flooding in dense urban areas, it is necessary to mimic nature’s natural retention abilities, whereas climate change adaptation means such as SUDS and green infrastructures are integrated into urban development. Increasing the green elements will also have a cooling effect on the city by reducing the urban heat island effect, which in the long term may reduce the usage of air conditioning and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, by strengthening cohesion in a neighbourhood, social resilience is increased which may benefit in many situations, not only in cases of flooding.

SUDS is an increasingly popular approach for managing the increasing threat of pluvial floods. The SUDS practices are designed to retain, infiltrate and/or evapotranspirate storm water and reduce the amount of water that runs off the surface.

SUDS includes various elements and technologies: e.g. rain barrels to collect water from roofs, swales to facilitate infiltration to manage pollution and runoff, green roofs, permeable pavements, etc., that can be modified to suit the specific site conditions and other factors like affordability and social acceptance. A key feature of SUDS solutions is that they attempt to mimic nature.

The novelty of this project is to further design the SUDS to also be used by locals as urban farming elements that do not reduce the water retention effects of the SUDS. Furthermore, the locals are trained to also maintain the SUDS, so the systems’ retention effect will stay effective. The training will also create awareness of climate change.

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Objective

•Flood risk analysis of an urban area in Vinh Yen
•Implementation of a SUDS integrated with urban farming
•Engagement of local citizens (mainly women) in using the SUDS for urban farming
•Test results of SUDS
•Textbook guidelines to be distributed to other cities

Results

Sustainable Development Goals

Relevant links

NIRAS A/S, Institute for Environmental planning, Urban and Rural Infrastructure (IRURE) - Vietnam Institute for Urban and Rural Planning (VIUP), Department of Finance and Planning (Vinh Yen City People's Committee)