Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Selling the Sponge City: Copenhagen’s Strategy for Cloudburst Management

Blunt, Liam Fitzgerald LU (2025) SGEM08 20251
Department of Human Geography
Abstract
This research analyzes the climate adaptation strategy of Copenhagen, focusing on cloudburst (rain-based) flooding and the use of infrastructure to mitigate damage. This strategy is analyzed through document analysis and structured interviews, using a theoretical framework of political ecology and urban green assemblages. This framework focuses analysis on the role of actors (human and non-human) and the power they hold in the production of spatial transformations. These spatial transformations are understood through the lens of assemblage, wherein urban climate adaptation is a series of discrete projects and not one mega-project playing out across the city as a whole. This lens allows for an analysis of actors across scale, and how these... (More)
This research analyzes the climate adaptation strategy of Copenhagen, focusing on cloudburst (rain-based) flooding and the use of infrastructure to mitigate damage. This strategy is analyzed through document analysis and structured interviews, using a theoretical framework of political ecology and urban green assemblages. This framework focuses analysis on the role of actors (human and non-human) and the power they hold in the production of spatial transformations. These spatial transformations are understood through the lens of assemblage, wherein urban climate adaptation is a series of discrete projects and not one mega-project playing out across the city as a whole. This lens allows for an analysis of actors across scale, and how these scales converge in planning and in construction. Ultimately, this thesis showcases how the City of Copenhagen entangles together these infrastructure investments with economic, recreational, and aesthetic benefits to citizens, providing political legitimacy for cloudburst management. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Blunt, Liam Fitzgerald LU
supervisor
organization
course
SGEM08 20251
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Climate adaptation, flood mitigation, urban geography, assemblages, co-production
language
English
id
9193475
date added to LUP
2025-06-09 10:28:25
date last changed
2025-06-09 10:28:25
@misc{9193475,
  abstract     = {{This research analyzes the climate adaptation strategy of Copenhagen, focusing on cloudburst (rain-based) flooding and the use of infrastructure to mitigate damage. This strategy is analyzed through document analysis and structured interviews, using a theoretical framework of political ecology and urban green assemblages. This framework focuses analysis on the role of actors (human and non-human) and the power they hold in the production of spatial transformations. These spatial transformations are understood through the lens of assemblage, wherein urban climate adaptation is a series of discrete projects and not one mega-project playing out across the city as a whole. This lens allows for an analysis of actors across scale, and how these scales converge in planning and in construction. Ultimately, this thesis showcases how the City of Copenhagen entangles together these infrastructure investments with economic, recreational, and aesthetic benefits to citizens, providing political legitimacy for cloudburst management.}},
  author       = {{Blunt, Liam Fitzgerald}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Selling the Sponge City: Copenhagen’s Strategy for Cloudburst Management}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}