Planning for climate change: the role of indigenous blue infrastructure, with a case study in Sweden

Abstract

By analysing past hydrological structures in the city of Lund, Sweden, this paper highlights the contexts in which knowledge of the dynamic landscape in its origin, and the subsequent integration of human implementation and perception, will provide a complementary guidance to sustainable planning and adaptation to climate change. Using the concept of indigenous blue infrastructure, the aim is to present and raise questions concerning contemporary planning and stormwater management of the urban core, and the consequent flooding incidents in the surrounding countryside. It also places emphasis on a systems thinking much needed in current planning, which recognises the correlation of different scales and urban land morphologies within the entire urban–rural landscape. Further, it aspires to depict a vista from which ensuing exploration into the role of indigenous hydrology and the historical landscape, as flexible, dynamic and unrestrained entities, can expand to address future challenges.