SPARC: Stakeholder participation for climate adaptation - data crowdsourcing for improved urban flood risk management

Urban flooding causes large societal damages and necessitates increased climate adaptation measures. The rapid and local character of extreme rain events make them difficult to observe, assess, predict and warn about.

There is also a lack of data on urban flood damages, mainly because of scarce and non-systematic data collection and management.The overarching aim of this project is to improve urban rain safety by establishing a participatory system for collection of data to support urban flood risk modelling, for adaptation of cities to intense rainfall.

The project will also investigate the flood damage mechanisms on the built environment as well as evaluate and communicate small scale adaptation measures.Case studies will be carried out in two different geographical regions in Sweden.

Municipal water and wastewater utility organizations and insurance industry representatives will be included in a trans-disciplinary process, also including crowdsourcing of data in a citizen science approach.The primary societal value of the project will be the deeper understanding of one of today’s large urban climate risks, improving the grounds for effective adaptation and increased preparedness in the form of early warnings.

The project is scalable and applicable in different environments, and the participation of stakeholders and citizens will generate a mutual social learning process that can serve as a good example of participation for climate adaptation.