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Blue Green Infrastructure through Social Innovation (BEGIN)

About the project

BEGIN (Blue Green Infrastructure through Social Innovation) is a 4 year project funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) by the Interreg Europe programme.

BEGIN proposes an approach to climate resilience for cities that mimics nature’s potential to deal with flooding. Blue and Green Infrastructure (BGI) supports existing grey infrastructure to cope with extreme weather events (reducing flood risk by 30%) and improves urban livability.

Visit the BEGIN project website to find out more.

Partners and observers

Key partners:

  • Aberdeen City Council (United Kingdom)
  • Agency for Roads, Bridges and Waters, Hamburg (Germany)
  • City of Antwerp (Belgium)
  • City of Bergen (Norway)
  • City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council (United Kingdom)
  • City of Dordrecht (The Netherlands)
  • City of Ghent (Belgium)
  • City of Gothenburg (Sweden)

There are also many observer partners including:

  • Construction Industry Research Information Association, CIRIA (United Kingdom)
  • Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
  • Hamburg University of Technology, TUHH (Germany)
  • IHE Delft Foundation, UNESCO-IHE (The Netherlands)
  • The Royal College of Art, RCA (United Kingdom)
  • University of Sheffield (United Kingdom).

Aims and objectives

The aims and objects of the BEGIN project are to:

  • demonstrate improved climate change adaptation through Blue Green Infrastructure (BGI) in urban areas
  • capture and sustain BGI’s multiple benefits by using social innovation
  • implement viable BGI solutions in pilot projects
  • incorporate BGI solutions into schemes to deliver drainage management and other multiple benefits.
  • establish the value of ecosystem services using innovative economic valuation tools.

Read about the 2 pilot projects in Sittingbourne and Margate (PDF, 3.3 MB).

Anticipated delivery

  • demonstrate new and/ or improved climate change adaptation solutions
  • promote the number of enterprises participating in cross-border, transnational or interregional research projects
  • promote the number of research institutions participating in cross-border, transnational or interregional research projects
  • encourage number of organisations/ enterprises adopting new solutions by project end
  • encourage number of organisations/ enterprises informed about new solutions by project end.

Key benefits for Kent

  • climate change adaptation solution
  • include BGI measures in urban redevelopment
  • facilitate and train local people to maintain and manage blue-green infrastructure projects within their communities.