Katarzyna: At the settlement scale in Gdansk, how are developers involved in this topic?
Joanna: Cooperation with developers is the most important piece of the puzzle, because they are the ones who actually create the new structure of our cities. It was through working with a developer who was open to my ideas that I myself gained practical knowledge and skills, testing various design solutions at the stage of implementing SPRIM into the development plan of a planned multi-family housing estate. Importantly, the project itself was not inspired by local law requirements. It was simply a classic housing development built "in a cabbage field" without existing infrastructure. So it was necessary to find a way to manage rainwater runoff in a drainless area. We mutually agreed that we were not interested in any underground solutions. Due to difficult geomorphological conditions, it was also not possible to implement classic infiltration retention basins or commonly used infiltration boxes. So we created the first such greenery system in our country, of which SPRIM is an integral element. We managed to create a retention greenery system functioning as a surface irrigation system for neighborhood greenery, increasing its biodiversity, and most importantly for the developer - cheaper than the commonly used underground, technical, concrete solutions. This proves that the creation of SPRIM does not require special provisions. We can do it from the bottom up even in the absence of a committed municipality. Maybe in the future such a pilot will become the basis for the creation of a local ZI.
SPRIM in progress -The Idea Estate in Gdansk.
photo: Joanna Rayss
In the case of Gdansk, however, it was not the developer who spearheaded the implementation of the first pilot. It was a truly grassroots project. My good colleague Przemek Kluz, a sociologist who occasionally cooperates with the Gdansk municipal company that manages, among other things, courtyards (Gdańskie Nieruchomości) next to municipal buildings, asked me for support in solving the problem of notoriously flooded and highly degraded courtyards in the Stogi neighborhood. Of course, I readily agreed. We organized, together with students from the Sopot University (where I was then teaching design classes related to the regeneration of degraded areas) and representatives of the courtyard team of Gdanskie Nieruchomości and the local district council, a workshop with residents. They aimed to show other, non-standard possibilities of using retention greenery as a way to solve their problem. The students generated design visions, images sometimes unrealistic, but eye-opening possibilities. This was met with a lot of interest from residents, and as a result we defined functional guidelines for a future professional construction and implementation project. After some time, the intensive efforts of the aforementioned colleague, as well as the District Council and other locally involved people, resulted in money for the project - I had the pleasure of developing it. Then, thanks to the conviction of the city authorities that it would be a valuable pilot, money for implementation was also found. That was several years ago. For me, the success is that more communities want to have a similar revolution in their backyards.
The desired behavior of developers can also be shaped by appropriate local policies. In Gdansk, there is a municipal company called Gdańskie Wody dealing precisely with water policy. One of the results of the first Gdansk Citizens' Panel in Poland was the decision of the then mayor Paweł Adamowicz to emphasize the policy of small retention by creating a substantive team in the company dealing with retention. I had the pleasure of co-founding it for two years, working with specialists in hydrology, hydrology, sanitary engineering and water management. I am convinced that our development is conditioned by just such crossing the boundaries of one's industry specialization. Together, we then created the framework of the city's new retention policy, which is still evolving and is a tool that sooner or later must turn into green infrastructure. It is such a universal key to the lock. Today, thanks to the technical conditions developed, the city mobilizes all investors to create retention greenery in every new development. It is required to manage a specific amount of rainwater runoff from sealed areas as compensation for investment. This is a hard condition for connecting with overflow to the municipal system. Even in the case of unsealed areas, the city's Department of Architecture verifies the projects with the expertise of competent employees of this company. Close cooperation of city units is very important. In Gdansk we are halfway there, we have more and more points with retention. And these are not individual rain gardens or barrels with indeterminate retention effects - these are thousands of cubic meters of water retained in SPRIM.
Greenery working at the Idea housing estate in Gdańsk
photo: Joanna Rayss
SPRIM also offers a simple tool for converting the value of ecosystem services. We often have good intentions, but they are not enough when Excel steps in. Because how do you convert a tree that produces a huge amount of oxygen, cleansing the air of harmful particulate matter and so on, into the language of a calculation table for a municipal investment? In the course of my work on retention, I noticed that SPRIM is a simple tool for translating the value of greenery precisely into zlotys. By using the proxy cost method, we are able to very easily compare how much it costs to manage a cubic meter of rainwater for different available solutions. For example, what will be the cost when using an underground concrete tank or infiltration boxes, and what will be the cost of greenery with the same retention capacity. I must emphatically say here: in my experience, greenery is always much cheaper! Therefore, we can't afford to overlook greenery as a tool for rainwater retention and management in our developments. And for developers, optimization of investment costs is the key.
Catherine: You admit that at the beginning of your career path you looked at solutions abroad. Can you comment on the level of sophistication of contemporary Polish green infrastructure solutions - in Gdansk, but not only - in relation to the level of various cities in the West? Where do you get the best solutions from and do we still have a lot of catching up to do in Poland?
Joanna: We often underestimate ourselves. We look at others with admiration, but we do it very superficially. It seems to me that such an overrated example is Copenhagen. Of course, it is a fantastic example of a city consciously shaping policies related to rainwater management thanks to the consistent implementation of the Cloudburst Management Plan. There are more and more fantastic natural and "designer" examples of retention greenery as a consequence of this policy. However, we must always look critically: the city thinks only about rainwater, without seeing the potential of green infrastructure. In addition, however, Copenhagen solutions are mostly based on huge underground infrastructure. So they are very expensive, spread out over a very long implementation time, and the responsibility for stormwater management lies almost entirely with the city. The greenery we see, on the other hand, is a small part of the overall investment. In my opinion, this is an unnecessary overinvestment. It can be done cheaper, better and faster.
Greenery working at the Idea housing estate in Gdansk
Photo: Joanna Rayss
I don't know of a city in the world that combines green infrastructure with rainwater management in a deliberate, comprehensive and ideal way. I think we should learn from everyone, verifying the solutions in terms of our local conditions. For many, Berlin is also a model. However, the really interesting solutions there are very spotty and local. They are scattered in the structure of the city, and comprehensive thinking about connecting the urban green system with water, as far as I know, does not work. Water is managed fantastically by the Dutch. I think the best city-scale, comprehensive rainwater management - Water Sensitive Urban Design - works in Australia, including Melbourne.
I would also add that to see good water retention solutions, we don't have to go to Copenhagen, Berlin or London at all. I invite you to Pomerania, because we already have a lot of comprehensive and functionally effective, as well as very diverse spaces related to green retention and SPRIM. Not only in Gdansk itself, but also in the surrounding areas.
Beaufort estate in Pogórze, multi-discipline project: Rayss Group, investor: Euro Styl
Photo: Joanna Rayss
Catherine: What are the biggest challenges of implementing these solutions into the urban system? Are the barriers cost, formal solutions, lack of faith in their effectiveness or validity?
Joanna: I think the biggest problem is people, the fact that implementing such solutions requires interdisciplinary cooperation and appreciation of specialists from other industries. We have a big problem with this in Poland. In order to design something, I have to cooperate with industry specialists, first of all with the architect - without his understanding and willingness to cooperate I won't do anything. I also have to cooperate with sanitary designers, constructors, lighting designers, road designers. However, I will admit that it is the architects - who are most responsible for the shape of modern cities - who are the group least interested in creating retention greenery and cooperating with my industry in this regard. Maybe they don't know, or maybe they just don't remember in the hustle and bustle of work that a landscape architect is a specialist who, in addition to "planting flowers," also knows how to solve engineering problems. At the Landscape Architecture Association, we have been promoting the SPRIM theme as an engineering method or tool for climate change adaptation for several years now. It is of great interest to the sanitation industry, the construction industry, the entire plumbing community. We do a lot of substantive training, we contribute to workshops and inter-industry conferences. Unfortunately, so far none of the branch organizations of architects has been interested in cooperation in this area. This, in my opinion, is primarily due to the quality of education at universities. From the programs in architectural studies, natural science subjects, landscape architecture are cut out and limited. When it comes to the need for "ecological" design, architects prefer complicated, but specified by "some manufacturer" "technologies". In contrast, they have no confidence in "bushes and flowers." They are often unaware that greenery in the form of a flowerbed can solve an engineering problem. They don't have the knowledge or belief that the processes generated by vegetation can be translated into the formulas and language of an engineer. Nor are they aware that greenery is also in part a "specific machine" that, in order to function properly, requires specific, often complex conditions.
That's why I think the biggest challenge is precisely the inter-industry agreement and that the professional group, which is directly responsible for the appearance of cities and the amount of concrete and greenery, should start taking an interest in this problem. At the moment we are damming the hemorrhage of urban floods, and it would be good to eliminate the cause. I am convinced that this is in the hands of architects.
Catherine: Thank you for the interview.
interviewed: Katarzyna Jagodzińska
Joanna RAYSS
Dr. Eng. of landscape architecture, expert in the implementation of elements of Green Infrastructure of the City and Urban Surface Retention Systems as tools in climate change adaptation. Co-author of the book "Urban Surface Retention System in Adaptation of Cities to Climate Change - from Vision to Implementation". Author of numerous press articles popularizing this issue. Working as a small retention specialist at the Gdańskie Wody municipal company in Gdańsk, she had the opportunity to influence the change in urban rainwater management policy towards greater use of the principles of ecohydrology, urban ecology and ecosystem services. From 2009 to 2020, she ran the author's design studio Zieleniarium. Since 2019 she has been a partner at Rayss Group, and since the second half of 2021 she has also been vice president of the company's board of directors. She specializes in the design of public areas, estate greenery and Nature Based Solutions and Ecosystem Based Solutions.
