Adaptation to climate change through sustainable management of water of the urban area in Radom City
Name of the coordinating beneficiary: Gmina Radom
Name of the associated beneficiary: FPP Enviro Sp. z o.o.
Name of the associated beneficiary: Uniwersytet Łódzki
Name of the associated beneficiary: Wodociągi Miejskie w Radomiu Sp. z o.o.
The Coordinating Beneficiary. The applicant and coordinating beneficiary in this project is the Municipality of Radom (Gmina Radom), which have extensive experience the implementation of projects co-financed by the European Commission. Radom is populated by more than 200 000 inhabitants and is rapidly developing. In the years 2004-2014 they have developed projects and received funding on their own and from a variety of partnerships for 137 projects, the value of which amounts to PLN 563 871 000. The Municipality is aware of the importance of climate adaptation and in many cases have encouraged local activities in this area. Municipality of Radom is growing in line with the slogan „Radom – strength in precision”. Department of EU Funds in the Municipal Office in Radom, will guide the project on the basis of its long experience in the coordination of projects cofinanced by the Union. The municipality will be the one of the first in Poland to deal with the complex problem of slowing runoff rainwater as adaptation to climate change. Radom is a sister city to Banská Bystrica – Slovakia, Daugavpils – Latvia, Magdeburg – Germany, Ploiești – Romania, Vilnius – Lithuanian District Municipality, Stara Zagora – Bulgaria and Talavera de la Reina – Spain. This would significantly increase the understanding and dissemination of global climate change idea among many of EU cities. The Town Hall Department of Environmental Protection will be responsible for the project implementation to the extent of their authority.
FPP Enviro Sp. z o.o. (previously FPP Consulting) was founded in 1998. FPP Enviro Sp. z o. o. brings to the project expertise on biodiversity conservation and restoration of natural habitats, water retention and EIA assessments. FPP Enviro, through its Danish-sister company, takes part in pioneering work related to climate adaptation by rain water retention in the “BIOWATER” project, funded by REAL DANIA, the foundation that supports new innovative products for building human settlements. The project is developing so called „Clima-pond”, an innovative, module-based solution for the retention of storm water in urban areas. FPP Enviro will bring this innovation to this project and will install pilot Klima-ponds as part of the green-blue infrastructure in Radom.
In 2003, FPP as one of the first companies in Poland has performed impact assessment studies on Natura 2000 sites for railway infrastructure, which were highly rated by the European Commission in 2006, and have been identified as examples of good practice. Since 2010, in collaboration with the Regional Directorate of State Forests in Bialystok, FPP has been implementing LIFE08 NAT/PL/000510: Protection of the lesser spotted eagle in selected Natura 2000 areas. FPP is also involved in the implementation of other LIFE projects in Denmark and Lithuania. The company is also specialized in conducting environment al assessments of large roads investments, biodiversity monitoring and natural water retention projects. FPP Enviro, in cooperation with its Danish branch is pioneering with application of eDNA method in biodiversity inventories. The company has a broad experience in project management, financial management and reporting.
The University of Łódź was established in 1945. Currently, it is one of the largest Polish universities, with 12 faculties and over 42 thousands of students. The Faculty of Biology and Environmental rotection (involved in the project) is the biggest biological faculty in Poland, conducts research in all fields of biological sciences, and has received “Category A” of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for high scientific quality. The Faculty employs over 240 scholars, including over 80 professors. It coordinates, among others, the EH-REK LIFE08 ENV / EN / 000517 project: “Ecohydrological rehabilitation of recreational reservoirs in Arturówek (Łódź) as a model approach to rehabilitation of urban reservoirs”, which has close methodological associations with this proposal. The Department of Applied Ecology (directly involved in the project) has coordinated and participated in a number of EU projects (e.g., MIDI-CHIP, TOXIC, SWITCH, EH-REK) and over 30 national projects. Research of the department is focused on integrated strategies for the protection and rehabilitation of water ecosystems, and includes such key research areas as:
- Ecohydrology;
- Ecosystem Biotechnology;
- Monitoring, early warning systems and control of eutrophication and toixic algal blooms;
- Management of water resources in urban areas;
- Aquaculture;
- Bioindication;
- Bioremediation and phytotechnology.
Within the EU project SWITCH, and through collaboration with the City of Lodz and European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology u/a UNESCO, the Department has developed and implements number of action within the blue-green network concept in Łódź. It has broad experience and know-how related to design, implementation and assessment of ecohydrological measures for water management in urban areas. It is also experienced in facilitation of the capacity building process and development of system solutions for cities based on water resources as the core for their sustainability.
Wodociągi Miejskie w Radomiu Sp. z o.o.(Municipal Water Works), hereinafter referred to as WMR, on the basis of Radom City Council Resolution Nr 607/2013, regarding the adoption and publication of the consolidated Radom City Statutes, run the activities regarding water supply, sewer system and storm water management.The company is incorporated by the City of Radom.Under the resolution above, WMR acquired the ownership and operation of a network of storm drains, and extended the scope of business of the company to the area of disposing of rainwater and snowmelt. The company can boast a 90% separation of rainwater drainage from general sewage, which puts Radom amongst the leaders in the sustainable management of rainwater.Thanks to this, it has extensive experience in the problems of infiltration. Understanding the need to adapt the storm sewer system to climate change has prompted the Municipality of Radom and WMR to start activities in further development in this area. Radom’s drainage-sewage network is one of the best developed in Poland.WMR have a team of professionals with required expertise in the management of water, provision and management, as well as in the cleaning and use of rainwater, and planning the execution of work related to the design and maintenance of storm water facilities. They have carried out one of the largest projects financed by the EU: the „Modernization and expansion of water and sewage in the agglomeration of Radom – stage II”. The water network includes 31 km of ditches used to conserve rainwater and 15 rainwater sedimentation/retention reservoirs, including the Borki reservoir and colmatation ponds. So far WMR have already upgraded around 100 km of water and sewage networks. The total value of investments made within its scope will be 56 million euro, including a grant of nearly million euro. WMR are also in charge of maintenance of rivers and aquatic reservoirs in Neil