Grundvandssikker kloakering er vores nye klimaudfordring – og en løsning på klimatilpasning

The Ministry of the Environment has estimated that 450,000 buildings in Denmark are in areas with a water table that is less than 1 m below ground level in winter. This means that there is a high risk of moisture damage and flooding of basements, as well as damage to other infrastructure. In general, we face very big challenges in the coming years with water from all sides. For example, increasing winter precipitation, cloudbursts, storm surges, sea level rise and flooded streams.
The latest IPCC report points out that in order to solve it, we need to think holistically, across sectors and transformatively rather than the incremental adaptation we have managed so far. The problem of not thinking holistically enough has been given a name in the IPCC report, namely 'maladaptation'.
The problems we face in Denmark with high groundwater are largely due to maladaptation. Local drainage of rainwater, efforts to deal with extraneous water in sewers and throttling of groundwater abstraction have in some places given us an unintended problem with high-level groundwater, and this problem will intensify in the coming years as a result of global warming.