Birmingham’s Living Lab Workshop: Solutions for Climate Change Realities

January 28, 2025
Heavy rain and flash flooding caused travel disruption, school closures and cancelled sporting events across Birmingham and the West Midlands in September and December 2024.

Many areas of Birmingham are heavily built-up, so when it rains, water cannot be absorbed into the ground like in open spaces. Instead, the rainwater runs quickly across the surface and straight into drains, ditches, rivers and streams – known as pluvial flooding. It is estimated that there are more properties at risk of surface water flooding from severe rain in Birmingham than anywhere else in the UK outside of London – 22,900 in all!

The University of Birmingham-led Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) map shows that some areas of Birmingham are more at risk to climate change than others. The CRVA was co-created with Birmingham City Council to ensure the approach supports the organisation’s needs, now and in the future. It takes 11 different factors into account, combining physical, social and environmental data including pluvial flood risk. More information on this open access approach is available in a new paper published in November 2024 “An open access approach to mapping climate risk and vulnerability for decision-making: A case study of Birmingham, United Kingdom.”

We know Birmingham is at risk of surface water flooding, and we know where those most vulnerable live and work, but what solutions are there?

The first Birmingham Case Study Area (CSA) Living Lab workshop was held on 28 November 2024. It was attended by a range of stakeholders from private, public, academia, youth, and non governmental organisation (NGO) sectors. The four-hour workshop discussed the climate risks, drivers and solutions regarding both surface water flooding and extreme heat in terms of what the city’s current infrastructure can cope with. A PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) wheel approach was used to guide the discussion, challenging delegates to think about the key external influencing factors. The group had a lot to say! Evidenced by the many ideas recorded on post-it notes (see photo and digitised image of the PESTLE wheel). The Birmingham CSA team will be looking at the results of the workshop in more detail and comparing with other CSAs in the CARMINE project. We will use these results to inform a second workshop which is currently planned for May 2025.

Lived experiences of climate change are a necessary stepping stone towards building climate resilience in cities, as there is nothing that emphasises the need for change more than first-hand experiences of the challenges and incoveniences caused by the impacts of climate change. Birmingham residents can help the CARMINE project by sending through photos and information on the location of surface water flooding they have experienced to Deanne Brettle: dxb354@student.bham.ac.uk.

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.