Drivers and Barriers for adapting the Swedish Sewage System to Meet Climate Changes

Background

The heavy rainfall we have seen in Sweden in recent years is part of the climate change predicted by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Torrential rains have caused a number of problems, such as flooding of watercourses, overflows of polluted water masses and leakage of sewage into buildings. Existing sewer networks in our cities are not dimensioned for such large amounts of rain that fall in a short period of time, the maintenance of the pipes is also in many cases neglected. The sewage systems, sewer networks as well as wastewater treatment plants, must therefore be adapted to climate change to achieve a sustainable society in accordance with the UN's 6th and 11th Sustainable Goals on Clean Water and Sanitation for All, and Sustainable Cities, respectively. Today, there are problems with the sewage systems that constitute obstacles to climate adaptation. For example, the historical heritage of technical infrastructure, technical solutions, legislation, organisation, urban planning, and system culture are circumstances that complicate climate adaptation. At the same time, there are enablers for climate adaptations in the form of, for example, circular solutions, small-scale wastewater management, new technology for purification and innovation in urban planning in the form of, for example, circular solutions.

Overall purpuse with the project:

The purpose of the project is to find the factors that hinder and enable climate adaptation of the water and sewage system.

Project goal:

The various aspects that constitute obstacles or enablers are each reported separately in the scientific literature, but a compilation and analysis of all aspects is lacking for Swedish conditions. In summary, we want to make a review, or a kind of "system diagnosis" of the Swedish water and sewage system. We focus on the organizations that are part of the Water and VA-Kluster Mälardalen and the VEMM group.