City of Amsterdam: Rainproof

One of the projects I am working on for the City of Amsterdam is to select and implement a digital modelling solution for the flow of rainwater. The expectations are that in the near future more frequent and more intense rain-showers will happen. These can disrupt the city and cause potential damage to important infrastructure. The Engineering Department of the City will have to check all plans for changes in the city if they are ‘rainproof’. Can these changes withstand a rain-shower of specific intensity or will there be flooding? There is a good map of Amsterdam showing the levels of rainproof the city is.

The project

To support the work for the Engineering Department a digital solution needs to be selected and implemented. There are only a small number of digital solutions available that can provide the necessary calculations and modelling. These solutions also have to work with the other tools for planning and design, like CAD and GIS tools. And the solutions have to be made available in the digital workspace of the involved engineers and advisors.

The project works with the engineers to define the main requirements and to lay the groundwork for further discussions with the potential providers. Since the challenge of ‘rainproofing’ the city is not only a challenge for Amsterdam, there are other engineering departments involved as well. Working together is an important step to come to some form of standardization and agreement on the models and way-of-working when dealing with aspects of climate change.