Event

Climathon – creating new solutions to Vejle’s flooding challenges

DATE
17 Mar 2016

Vejle City  is placed at the end of a river valley and is often flooded due to heavy rain and high tides in Vejle Fjord. Flooding means houses underwater, power failures and roads that are are impassible. All in all very stressful for the local community.

A 24 hour hack focusing on three flooding challenges:

A Climathon is a hackathon type event which aims to bring forward solutions to climate challenges in cities.

Climate challenges in cities are global in character, but this event will focus on solutions and new ideas related more specifically to three distinct districts in Vejle. We are looking for multifunctional solutions – that is, solutions that solve more than one problem at a time. The solutions will bring together multiple stakeholders and will most likely be a mix of technology, business, behavioural change and design thinking.

Challenge 1: Water management

Vejle is placed by the sea at the end of a river. Rising sea levels as well as more frequent and intense cloudbursts put pressure on the city’s functioning normally. We need to find new ways to manage the water – divert it from the city centre, delay it upstream or store it for a time. We also need to find effective ways of communicating, when the water is coming.

Challenge 2: Urban transition

How can the city cope with the flooding risk and rising water levels and utilise already existing green and recreation spaces? The city and its open spaces need to be transformed to cope with water. This can potentially add value to the city, for example by building on social coherence and readiness for flooding.

Challenge 3: Livability and citizen engagement

A strong, supportive and well-connected neighbourhood is critical to tackle floods and climate challenges. How can citizens take responsibility for our shared city during both floods and between floods, and act to help themselves and their neighbours in times of crisis? Given enough time and resources, engineers can fix most problems. But citizens can also engage, collaborate and thereby shape a supportive neighbourhood and increase livability.

Who should attend:

Anybody with a desire to create new solutions can attend. You don’t have to be an expert in flooding. We are looking for engineers, designers, business people, software developers, data people, social scientists and legal or financial people. You can be a student, entrepreneur or employed.

We will form diverse teams of people with different backgrounds who will work together for an intense 24 hours. Attendees will be inspired by short talks on e.g. the flooding challenge, and design thinking, during the event. All groups will pitch their solution to  a panel of experts including city representatives at the end and receive feedback. The winning team will receive a prize and ongoing coaching to develop their idea further during the next 6 months.

The winning team will also be given the opportunity to present their solution to leading actors in Danish Design at the Danish Design Council’s national conference on circular design thinking in May 2016.

When: 10.00 17 March to 10.00 18 March 2016

Where: Økolariet, Dæmningen 11, 7100 Vejle – Get directions to Økolariet

Registration

Please complete the registration form below or access the link to the registration form here

Details provided in your profile will help us prepare and form strong, diverse teams.

Attendance is free of charge, but there is a no-show fee of DKK 500 

Apply online

 Partners:

 

vejle_logo-copy

 

 

 

Municipality of Vejle: With a population of 109,000, Vejle is Denmark’s sixth-most populous municipality and the regional capital of Southern Denmark. As part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities network Vejle, will develop its resilience and elasticity to both sudden disasters and slowly developed threats, such as flooding.

designrådet

 

 

Danish Design Council: is an independent network organisation established in 1977 by representatives of the Danish design community in collaboration with the Confederation of Danish Industries in order to promote good industrial design. The Danish Design Council is raising awareness on the importance and potential of circular design thinking in 2016, and will participate with knowledge and inspiration on design  thinking.

 

 

 
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