Brugge
Blue4Green - Hydrating the city by combining heritage, natural and high-tech solutions for green-blue challenges
Bruges is a true water city. The historic city centre is criss-crossed with canals, known as ‘reien’. Yet, even here, water is becoming scarce. With the Blue4Green project, the city is calling for an integrated and sustainable approach to water management in order to optimise the green-blue veining of the city. In the future, the Bruges canals will become an essential link in making the city water- and climate-robust, helping the urban environment cope with climate change.
Our main challenges...
Limited space in the historic centre complicates the installation of new facilities to increase water buffer capacity. This means that in periods of water shortage, the city must tap into other available water sources.
The quality of the water in the reien is unstable. This not only threatens fauna and flora, but also limits recreational use, such as swimming and other sports events. A blue-green algae problem puts additional pressure on water quality.
The city lacks real-time insights into water availability from different water sources, overflows, water levels in the reien, water quality and green stress.
and proposed solutions
A Blue4Green digital twin to gain better insights into water availability and the water needs of green infrastructure.
An automated steering system for the reien, connecting it to a smart water balance model, in order to increase water buffer capacity in the inner city.
The testing of two types of nature-based solutions.
Key figures
Milestones
The dashboard stores real-time data from sensors and makes it accessible
Installation of new filtering methods in the city’s inner canals
A model with triggers and actions to increase the inner canals’ water buffer capacity
To understand the water system and allow for strategic green-blue management decisions
This pilot tests the re-use and buffer capacity of the historic water system
