Adapting Cities to Climate Change: Institutional Change around Sustainable Urban Water Concepts in the City of Hamburg, Germany

Joerg Knieling,Tom Hawxwell

doi:10.5194/dkt-12-44

Abstract

&lt;p&gt;Diverse concepts have emerged in recent decades which (at least in their rhetoric) aim to instigate processes that make cities more resilient to climate change and support more sustainable urban development (Coaffee and Lee 2016; Hodson and Marvin 2017). With regards to urban water management, the Water-Sensitive City (WSC) is one such concept that promotes urban water planning to &amp;#8220;protect, maintain and enhance the multiple benefits and services of the total urban water cycle that are highly valued by society&amp;#8221; (Wong and Brown 2009, 674). The WSC, along with related integrated urban water management concepts have seen growing scholarly attention in recent years (see e.g. Fletcher et al. 2015). The emergence of such concepts reflects the growing demand for more sophisticated and integrated understanding and management of urban water systems. Such an ambitious model represents a broadening of the competencies and responsibilities of practitioners involved in water management and improved coordination with other urban sectors. Thus, such changes (must) typically coincide with changes amongst actors engaged directly or indirectly in water management, along with the prevailing institutional arrangements that govern their activities.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Yet very little is known about processes of institutionalisation of such concepts within socio-technical regimes such as those that characterise urban water systems (Fuenfschilling and Truffer 2014). This paper aims to map processes of institutionalisation of concepts associated with the Water-Sensitive City amongst practitioners working in urban water management related fields in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The research explores changes in the institutional arrangements between 1990 and 2020.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Coaffee, J., and P. Lee. 2016. &lt;em&gt;Urban Resilience:&lt;/em&gt; &lt;em&gt;Planning for Risk, Crisis and Uncertainty&lt;/em&gt;. Macmillan International Higher Education.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Fletcher, T. D., W. Shuster, W. F. Hunt, R. Ashley, D. Butler, S. Arthur, S. Trowsdale, et al. 2015. &amp;#8216;SUDS, LID, BMPs, WSUD and More &amp;#8211; The Evolution and Application of Terminology Surrounding Urban Drainage&amp;#8217;. &lt;em&gt;Urban Water Journal&lt;/em&gt; 12 (7): 525&amp;#8211;42. https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2014.916314.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Fuenfschilling, L., and B. Truffer. 2014. &amp;#8216;The Structuration of Socio-Technical Regimes - Conceptual Foundations from Institutional Theory&amp;#8217;. &lt;em&gt;Research Policy&lt;/em&gt; 43 (4): 772&amp;#8211;91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2013.10.010.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hodson, M., and S. Marvin. 2017. &amp;#8216;Intensifying or Transforming Sustainable Cities? Fragmented Logics of Urban Environmentalism&amp;#8217;. &lt;em&gt;Local Environment&lt;/em&gt; 22 (sup1): 8&amp;#8211;22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2017.1306498.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Wong, T. H. F., and R. R. Brown. 2009. &amp;#8216;The Water Sensitive City: Principles for Practice&amp;#8217;. &lt;em&gt;Water Science and Technology&lt;/em&gt; 60 (3): 673&amp;#8211;82. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2009.436.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;

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