Bergen, NO: Divided asset management responsibilities – BGI brings together at least two asset managers: those that are responsible for urban drainage and those responsible for greenspace management. In Bergen, these responsibilities are divided between the Water and Sewage Agency and the Agency for Urban Environment. Therefore, new forms of coordination are required and more experience is needed to understand how the (integrative) systems perform.

Enfield, UK: Engaging citizens in monitoring – The maintenance of BGI is easier to identify (compared to grey infrastructure), as it is constructed above ground. This offers opportunities for including engaged citizens in identifying issues and reporting, for example via online apps.

Antwerp, BE: Pilot semi-paved car parking – Antwerp City Council has started a pilot for semi-paved parking. Asset managers will monitor the performance of this paving (infiltration capacity) in order to collect evidence about the contribution of the BGI.

Aberdeen, UK: Monitoring use and identifying trends – Maidencraig Flood Management Wetland Scheme Phase 2 includes footpaths. Permanent pedestrian and cycle counters will be installed in three locations to monitor use and identify trends.

Aberdeen, UK: Interdisciplinary working group – Aberdeen City Council has set up a working group to guide and advise the project delivery team. The working group meets on a monthly basis and consists of members from several departments and external organisations.

Enfield, UK: SuDS seminars – Enfield City Council has provided SuDS seminars for colleagues in other departments, such as Planning, Highways, and Redevelopment. The key message of the seminars is that BGI can be built into a variety of other projects. The seminars therefore facilitated the identification of opportunities for incorporating BGI into other projects. Including BGI into other schemes has been more successful since these sessions.

Bergen, NO: new concepts after interdepartmental cooperation – The planning and redevelopment of the central channel alongside the new light rail development through the Minde area was executed in close cooperation with different agencies of Bergen City Council. The discussions led to a new design for the BGI that consists of both an open channel on the surface and a buried channel designed to handle flooding.

Bradford, UK: Department of Place – The establishment of the Department of Place in Bradford City Council facilitated interdisciplinary working, since all domains that were involved in the physical environment are currently located in the same department. For the restoration of the Bradford Beck, landscape architects, highway planners, engineers, biodiversity and health officials currently work together more easily, compared with how it used to be when the urban drainage department was in the lead.

Dordrecht, NL: Blue-green Department – After the local elections in 2017, the City of Dordrecht defined city-wide challenges. One of these was to become a climate-adaptive, blue-green city, utilising BGI. To this end, a new organisational unit was established with limited financial resources. Therefore, the unit had to interact with other departments and bring together different disciplines in order to be able to deliver the planned BGIs.

Antwerp, BE: CityLab Sint-Anneke Plage – The City of Antwerp started an Urban Living Lab for the redevelopment of Sint-Anneke Plage, in which BGI had to be combined with socio-economic development. The living lab brought together several experts, local landowners, NGOs, and residents to jointly develop a vision for the area. The City of Antwerp facilitated this process through its CityLab2050 department and external facilitators.

Bergen, NO: A public rainwater monitoring system – Bergen City Council has bought an old post terminal in Mindemyren, which will be transformed into a multi-functional building that can serve educational and recreational purposes for the local community. In the central square, an information sign will show the rainfall of the last hour, day and month, as part of a public rainwater monitoring system. This interactive system will raise awareness about the impacts of climate change.

Enfield, UK: Partnerships with Friends of the Park – Enfield City Council has created wetlands in the Firs Farm, which can be used to collect stormwater. A local community group – Friends of Firs Farm– has taken over the daily maintenance of the BGI. Members of this community meet weekly and the park has become an important community.

Royal College of Arts, UK: Engaging communities through new service designs – Students from the Royal College of Arts developed, together with local city councils in the UK, new service designs to encourage communities to contribute to and take some ownership of their environment, and specifically new BGI. To illustrate, a new service design included an online platform which demonstrates how BGI schemes are planned, helping the public understand the decision-making process. A Community Garden Club was developed that helps connect children and parents with nature through gardening, but also provides opportunities for local authorities to set tasks that help maintain public space.

Gothenburg, SE: a new branding strategy – With the launch of Rain Gothenburg, the Sewage and Water Department of Gothenburg City Council have emphasised the human dimensions of rainwater. Gothenburg is one of the rainiest cities in Europe. The creation of new BGI is combined with art installations and outdoor classrooms located at BGI. As a result, communities have become more familiar with both the challenges and pleasures related to urban rainwater. Moreover, communities can feel a sense of pride in how their city is dealing with rainwater in a positive, rather than negative.

Aberdeen, UK: Engagement with adjacent landowners – Through engaging with a housing developer on an adjacent site, Aberdeen City Council secured funding for the construction of a “safe route to school” foot- and cycle-path through the site of the Maidencraig Flood Management Wetland Scheme. The private developer was willing to invest in this route, because the scheme would benefit its property. The route provided an enhanced route to school for children living in the new housing development and a new and improved link between communities separated by the site.

Enfield, UK: private investments for BGIs – Private funding is available for BGI-related projects, yet often unknown to local authorities. Enfield City Council and The Rivers Trust secured private investments from the Coca-Cola Foundation and WWF for the construction of wetlands in Broomfield Park that will reduce pollution in the nearby Pymmes Brook. Coca-Cola and WWF have established a water stewardship partnership, which grants financial support for small-scale projects that replenishes water quality or quantity in local.

Bergen, NO: lightrail development – Large-scale urban developments such as transportation investments offer opportunities to include BGI. One of the major transformations in Bergen is in the industrial Mindemyren district that will be turned into a residential area. The construction of a lightrail from the city centre to Mindemyren is the first stage of development. Comprehensive planning of Bergen City Council ensured that infrastructure development is combined with other improvements such as BGI, resulting in the opening up of the canal that runs through the neighbourhood. The lightrail construction becomes more attractive with the provision of a linear blue-green space running through the area, which can be used for individual transport, including cycling, as well as for floodwater storage

Dordrecht’s blue-green vision – The City of Dordrecht has developed a BGI vision that demonstrates the multiple benefits of BGI for the city. In a series of workshops with external stakeholders, these benefits were linked to urban development in Dordrecht. The Vogelbuurt neighbourhood was identified by stakeholders as a promising area for constructing BGI: developments already planned for the neighbourhood facilitated the co-construction of BGI, with the developments benefiting from the BGI. The use of BGI can boost the redevelopment plans of local housing associations, creating more liveable neighbourhoods for tenants. Local welfare workers were enthusiastic supporters of BGI, as they can use the new green spaces for their activities.