Module blue-green infrastructure planning

Module blue-green infrastructure planning

Identification of the potential and impacts of blue-green infrastructure based on spatial and technological scenarios developed through co-design

Coaches: Dr. Ganbaatar Khurelbaatar and Dr. Jan Friesen (both UFZ)

Cities often face difficulties in identifying, comparing and integrating suitable blue-green infrastructure measures into their planning – particularly in view of complex framework conditions, limited resources and sometimes conflicting objectives. This often results in strategies that do not adequately address the actual urban challenges.

This is where we come in. We support municipalities in developing methodologically sound foundations for decision-making. This includes the development of technically and spatially plausible scenarios, the simulation of their impacts and the spatial modelling of effects. Blue-green infrastructure is modelled at scales ranging from individual properties to entire urban areas in order to identify the potential and limitations of different design options and thus enable technical and spatial prioritisation. Economic considerations are also important for assessing the feasibility of individual design options.

The coaching demonstrates approaches for estimating, or at least qualitatively assessing, direct costs, follow-up costs as well as direct, indirect and induced benefits with a reasonable level of effort. This makes different courses of action transparently comparable and provides a solid basis for planning and investment decisions. See also the module “Costs, Benefits, Financing”.

Particular emphasis is placed on co-design processes in which municipal administration, technical planning, politics and civil society work together on scenarios and solution strategies. This means that the potential of blue-green infrastructure – for example for stormwater management, urban cooling or the promotion of biodiversity – can not only be demonstrated but also specifically integrated into local planning. In this way, knowledge-based, participatively developed strategies are created that go beyond purely technical measures.

For the coaching, we use, among others, the following methods and approaches:

  • Optimised and fast dimensioning of decentralised urban water infrastructures based on design events (DOI: 10.2166/bgs.2026.003)
  • UrbanWaterBlocks: A Python Tool for Block-Based Urban Water Management (DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2026.107244)
  • Urban blocks enable data-reduced, hydraulically sound planning for combined sewer overflow mitigation (DOI: 10.1016/j.wroa.2025.100466)
  • Co-designing water-sensitive suburbs through blue-green infrastructure planning by research, municipal and housing association partners (DOI: 10.2166/9781789065015_0175)
  • Spatial-economic scenarios to increase resilience to urban flooding (DOI: 10.1016/j.wroa.2024.100284)
  • Pysewer: A Python Library for Sewer Network Generation in Data Scarce Regions (DOI: 10.21105/joss.06430)
  • Management of Urban Stormwater at Block-Level (MUST-B): A New Approach for Potential Analysis of Decentralized Stormwater Management Systems (DOI: 10.3390/w13030378)

Further useful literature:


The remaining modules: Law cost, benefit, financing politics and administration