Supporting evidence-based urban stormwater planning.
UrbanWaterBlocks is an interactive Decision Support System (DSS) for exploring the potential of low-impact development (LID) and decentralised stormwater management across urban areas in Germany. By combining geospatial data, block-level indicators and LID dimensioning, the platform helps users identify potential intervention areas, assess the suitability of individual urban blocks and compare opportunities across urban blocks and cities.
The DSS enables users to interactively test different LID strategies under defined rainfall and implementation scenarios and investigate their implications for urban stormwater management. By connecting block-level assessment with scenario-based exploration, UrbanWaterBlocks supports evidence-based planning and helps identify opportunities for integrating blue-green infrastructure into more sustainable and climate-resilient German cities.
All members of the Deutscher Städtetag
Delineated from the street, rail and water network
5, 30 and 100 year × 60, 120 and 240 min
Assessed at 0–100% coverage of open ground
From runoff assessment to blue-green infrastructure planning.
Which LID technologies have the greatest potential to reduce runoff under a given rainfall scenario?
Which urban blocks and districts offer the greatest potential for LID implementation?
How does the implementation of different LID scenarios change estimated runoff and retention outcomes?
How do different LID technologies and implementation levels compare under the same rainfall conditions?
How does LID implementation potential vary across blocks, districts and cities?
How does a city's stormwater management potential compare with that of other cities under consistent assessment conditions?
- Locate potential LID areas by identifying urban blocks where different LID technologies may be suitable.
- Assess block suitability using spatial indicators and LID dimensioning to evaluate the potential for implementation.
- Compare and prioritize urban blocks to identify areas that warrant further investigation and intervention.
- Explore LID scenarios by comparing technologies and implementation levels to identify promising options for localized stormwater management.
- Support urban planning decisions by comparing runoff conditions and potential retention opportunities across neighbourhoods and districts.
- Export data for further analysis by downloading block-level results for mapping, analysis and integration into other modelling workflows, including SWMM for long-term stormwater simulations.
Understanding the results
UrbanWaterBlocks provides a spatial screening and scenario-exploration framework. Its outputs indicate potential opportunities for LID implementation rather than verified site-level performance. They can support the selection of areas and scenarios for more detailed assessment, hydrological modelling and infrastructure design.
Urban Transformations towards Blue-Green Infrastructures
UT-UBGI is a collaborative research project that develops and evaluates blue-green infrastructure (BGI) strategies for sustainable urban transformation across Germany. It combines interdisciplinary modelling, scenario-based planning and collaboration with municipalities to assess the potential, limitations and trade-offs of BGI, including urban cooling, biodiversity and water demand.
The project brings together expertise from three Helmholtz centres — UFZ, KIT and Hereon — to develop evidence-based approaches and tools that support municipal planning and sustainable urban transformation.
- Funded by
- Helmholtz Sustainability Challenge project UT-UBGI
KA-HSC-16 - Project duration
- 2024 – 2027
- Coordinated by
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig
- Partners
Data and sources
Snigdha Dev Roy
snigdha.dev-roy@ufz.de
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany
UrbanWaterBlocks — Decision Support System for Blue-Green Infrastructure Planning, development (2026). Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig. https://uwb-dss.web.app.ufz.de/
Next.js 16.3 and React 19.2, OpenLayers 10.10, Zustand 5.0, Turf 7.4 and shpjs 6.2 in the browser; GeoServer 2.28 for the map services; Python 3.11 with GeoPandas 1.1 for the model service.
All sources and licences →