water management

In 2019, the public initiative "Give the rivers back to the cities" united citizens around the Podborenka River, which flows through the entire length of Izhevsk. 

In an urbanised environment, the Podborenka River has become deserted due to water pollution, poor stormwater management, pollution from roads and industry, soil erosion and landfills in the valleys. Therefore, the primary objective of the project is to increase urban resource efficiency and to create new scenarios for resource use in a small river basin. 

In the heart of western Europe, on the Dutch-Belgian border, work began in 2007 on a major habitat restoration project. The 45-kilometre stretch of the river, which originated in the Ardennes as the Meuse and reached the Dutch plain at Maastricht, where it is now called the Meuse, has been restored to its natural state at great cost in terms of time and money. The 1200 hectare RivierPark Maasvallei (Meuse Valley River Park) on the border between the Netherlands and Flanders in Belgium is now one of the most attractive destinations for green tourism.

Lahti, with its population of 120,000 inhabitants and located in Southern Finland, is the smallest and northernmost European Green Capital ever. Lahti has worked on environmental issues for decades and is continuously developing as a city with a sustainable future, a pioneer of smart, sustainable solutions.

The 1879 flood in Szeged practically leveled the city, which was then built of adobe houses with irregular lines, to the ground. Although the steadily rising flood levels since 1855 and the floods of the 1870s highlighted the weakness of the embankments and the lack of organised protection, no planned intervention was made.   

Water&Soil Ltd. is an agricultural input material manufacturer that offers a solution to one of the biggest limiting factors, water scarcity. Water Retainer is an organic-based soil conditioning liquid that retains existing moisture in the soil by reducing evaporation loss. Water Retainer is also marketed in Hungary, Morocco, Kenya, Pakistan, India and Chile. It has been tested by scientific institutes in 14 countries on 4 continents. The World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently recognized Water Retainer and included it in its list of recommended technologies.

This is a family-based company based in Czechia that has made a real change in urban tree planting over the past 5 years by introducing watering bags for newly planted trees. Mortality of newly planted trees decreased from 50%-60% to nearly 0%. Since 2018, the company has been looking for solutions to save large urban trees during climate change and to boost them to 100% of their ecosystem services. It has developed a product and a method that makes this possible. It has filed an international patent application. But it has discovered more than it could ever have imagined

As a result of its research, the company have developed and created its own hydroponic equipment, which, beyond the advantages of hydroponic technology, can be rotated manually or automatically. This way, up to 25% less energy needs to be used for lighting than if it were illuminated on all sides. Due to the innovative design of the equipment, the size of the system can be adapted on demand. The company currently sells equipment one by one, as well as large systems by building several towers together.

The smart sewer inspection system will be deployed in every district of Seoul next year. Seoul is set to become the first city in Korea to use artificial intelligent (AI) technologies to identify defects in its sewer network.

Cudy Future Ltd. has been producing cruelty-free, planet and skin-friendly cleaning and cosmetic products since 2010. The company’s goal is to create clean and healthy homes and work environments with the contribution of the products, while reducing its ecological footprint. To this end, products are manufactured in a ”green” way. The products are vegan and skin-friendly, and also hypoallergenic, and do not contain synthetic, corrosive substances. They biodegrade fast, and do not contain phosphate, chlorine, palm oil and parabens.

The climate is changing: the rain is heavier and the dry periods between are lasting longer. How can we moderate these two extremes? A lot of rain water currently drains through sewers to prevent flooding. However, that does not always work and increases the problem of drought.

One way to deal with this; is to have our urban greenery function like a sponge. A sponge can moderate these extremes; it can absorb water quickly, hold it temporarily and gradually return the water to the subsoil.