During 7^th – 8^th of June 2018, experts of CLEANTECH LATVIA conducted a seminar on “Green infrastructure for rainwater management: strategic and technical aspects”.

It is widely known that most of the cities in the world struggle with serious consequences from environmental and climate changes, which have occurred during the last decades. Every city works hard in search of best solutions to overcome challenges, they were never prepared for. One of such problems is rainwater management.

It is worth noting, that problem of torrential flooding is relevant not only for Almaty and Kazakhstan, but also to many other cities in Europe, USA or South-East Asia which are facing the same problem. These examples and new solutions on planning, designing and green infrastructure to overcome these obstacles were presented by experts of CLEANTECH LATVIA:

• Jurijs Kondratenko, expert on sustainable solutions for rainwater management and the development of green infrastructure
• Daina Ievina, leading expert in designing water supply and sewage systems.

The seminar was supported also by Urbanistic department of “Almaty Development Center” (ADC), that works under Almaty’s administration (Akimat). Among participants were specialists from relevant departments from Akimat, designers, specialists of AlmatyGenPlan (Urban planner), teachers and students, as well as non-indifferent to environmental issues Almaty citizens.

The seminar was divided in 2 parts. Theoretical part consisted of:

• Strategic rainwater management as integral part of sustainable city development and creation of attractive public spaces
• Precipitations and urban hydrology – plans on management of wastewater basins
• Green infrastructure elements: project solutions, construction and operational aspects

The practical part included site visits on potential pilot areas offered by ADC (the crossroad of Abay ave. and Rozybakiyev st.; crossroad of Abay ave. and Zharokov st.), and further development of solutions by participants.

During the seminar all participants gained valuable knowledge in the field of green urban planning and latest tendencies in this direction, based on the experience of Baltic and Scandinavian states. Additionally, conceptual design solutions for pilot areas were developed.

The specific of presented solutions is their ability to turn unpleasant problems, caused by extreme rains, into multifunctional esthetic urban design, which also provides efficient use of water resources.

The developed solutions will be presented to Akimat of Almaty with the goal of their further implementation. CLEANTECH LATVIA in collaboration with Almaty Development Center, intend to promote further the modern green solutions for development of strategic plan on rainwater management of Almaty city.

Presentations of seminar in Russian can be found here.