Green Urbanisation roadshow sets new route to resilient future

This March sees Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation hosting its first series of seminars, tackling the crucial subject of managing climate change and extreme weather events in urban environments.

Called Realising Resilience – An Introduction to Green Urbanisation, the seminars bring industry experts on green infrastructure, flood and drought resilience, urban realm landscaping and wellbeing design to London, Birmingham and Manchester.

Free to attend, the three-hour seminars take place on Monday 16 March, Wednesday 18 March and Friday 20 March in Manchester, Birmingham and London respectively.

There will also be open Q&A forums, plus food and refreshments will be available after each event. For information on the full programme and details of how to register visit www.polypipe.com/Roadshow-2020

The programme highlights include presentations on…

 –  Investment in Green Infrastructure in Greater Manchester: public-private partnerships and the Ignition Project by Dr Rachel Morrison, Environmental Team, Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

 –  Green Urbanisation for Long-term Health and Wellbeing Benefits by Jane Findlay, Landscape Institute President Elect and Founding Director at Fira.

 –  Green Urbanisation Through Policy: London’s Response and the Urban Greening Factor from Pete Massini, Green Infrastructure Lead, Greater London Authority.

Green Urbanisation is a breakthrough that enhances the resilience and sustainability of urban development. It defines a new range of combined water management and green asset technologies scalable to any size project – from a single plot to a catchment-wide solution.

Helping mitigate the impact of climate change and population growth, Green Urbanisation will network water collection, management and storage, and green assets to deliver enhanced flood and drought resilience, smart water usage, increased biodiversity and greater human wellbeing. It also plays a valuable role in carbon capture and offset.

Sean Robinson, Specification Director at Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation, commented: “Extreme rainfall events are increasingly putting UK infrastructure under pressure and – as we’ve sadly seen these past few weeks – urban and suburban flooding is now much more frequent and severe.

“The need to protect people and property heavily impacts upon public authorities, developers and contractors, and new sustainable drainage techniques are required to better manage these extreme events.

“This will also require a collaborative approach from the earliest stages of planning and design, involving architects, landscape architects, engineers and water management specialists.

“Simultaneously, this provides the opportunity to invigorate our approach to green assets utilising new water management technologies; so increasing biodiversity, reducing the heat island effect, adding more green space, improving air quality, and enhancing health and wellbeing.

“Realising Resilience brings together not only Polypipe’s own in-house expertise in this important area, but also wider perspectives on policy, green infrastructure, wellbeing and blue and green roof delivery.

“We urge anyone concerned with drought and flood resilience, or green infrastructure to make time to attend.”

For more information about Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation’s full range of water management solutions, visit www.polypipe.com/civils or call 01509 615100