June 17 2009, 10:22 AM
Gothenburg prepares for climate change
By: Sara Jeswani
Photo: Älvstranden.
Gothenburg, Sweden’s second largest city, is placed on both sides of the river Göta Älv. When I lived in Gothenburg some years ago I loved spending time at the river bank, seeing the boats pass by. But the same water that has served as an excellent route for ships bringing their cargo from all over the world to Gothenburg and other places along the river, is now posing a serious threat to the city. All because of climate change and the sea level rises and extreme weather events which will follow higher temperatures.
Ancient wetlands
Yesterday I went to see a small exhibition about how Gothenburg plans to deal with this threat. The exhibition opens up by making it clear that a sea level rise of 0,9 meter in combination with a big storm would have very serious consequences to areas along the river. Great parts of Gothenburg are ancient wetlands which have been filled when the city was founded in the 17:th century.
Scientific projections of sea level rises between 0,8 and 2,0 meters within a century means we can count on problems in the future.
The exhibition shows how securing walls can be built, that the city is making plans for how to secure drinking water and that the transport system will be affected. A large part of the city’s streets, footpaths and cycle lanes would be flooded if the water rises and storms occur. But, says the reports, to secure all of it from the water would not be economically possible. Some services will inevitably go lost.
Ready for one meter
One part of prevention work is making new houses more resilient to higher water levels. Now all new floors in vulnerable areas of the city must be built to secure buildings against sea level rises of 1 meter over today’s records. Some functions particularly important for society will be protected against water levels rising up to 2 meters.
