Blue-green walls of Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg is a German town with an early medieval plan and many preserved individual half-timbered buildings. The old town of Quedlinburg is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The old town has very dense development, so there is almost no vegetation in the open spaces of the historic core. Also on some streets there are large paved areas. The task was to develop ideas on how principles of the sponge city can be implemented in a stone medieval urban structure such as Quedlinburg in order to improve the urban climate. The „Blue-green walls of Quedlinburg“ is a complex of soft engineering solutions for stormwater management by means of the vegetated treatment network. This network will strengthen the biodiversity and green infrastructure of Quedlinburg through creating new functional green areas, retention, filtration, infiltration, and treatment of stormwater. This complex of soft engineering solutions will have a great impact on the atmosphere, climate, and water circulation. This proposal with stormwater harvesting underground tanks to be created in areas most vulnerable to flooding, will make much easier the process of stormwater harvest by sewage.