Features and challenges
The municipality of Amsterdam and Waternet have set up the ‘Amsterdam Rainproof’ platform with the aim of increasing Amsterdam’s resilience to increasingly frequent rainstorms. Amongst other things, Waternet is responsible for the circulation of rain and waste water in Amsterdam.
Making the city more climate-resistant was also one of the challenges facing the ‘Accommodation of special groups’ project in Amsterdam. In this project, Iv-Infra provided the engineering to develop several locations within the city limits to make them suitable for construction and accommodation for a maximum period of 10 years. Each location is a project in itself, in which Iv-Infra fine-tunes the designs with the municipality, utility companies, housing corporations, the building contractor constructing the temporary residences and the civil contractor responsible for the layout of its public spaces.
Each location has its own features and challenges. For example, at the ‘Kruislaan’ location, one of the challenges was the provision of water compensation for the increase in roofed and paved surfaces. Because rainwater is no longer able to soak away into the soil due to this increase, it can cause flooding or overloading of the surface water drainage and/or sewer system. Waternet’s statute therefore states that for every 1,000 m2 increase in hardened surface, a minimum of 70 m3 rainwater storage must be generated in compensation. This requirement is considerably stricter than the normative T10 which, according to the drainage guidelines, occurs once in 10 years. The reason for this is that Waternet wishes to implement robust facilities and resilience measures in the city, so that it is prepared for a future of climate change.
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Project location