Water running into our basements has become something that many of us are familiar with. We need to get used to increasingly heavier rainfalls. And we need to adjust our cities accordingly. What is the best way to do that? And in the process of adapting our cities to the climate changes, can we create better cities too? The exhibition “The Rain is Coming – how climate change adaptation can create better cities” showed us how we can avoid having our basements turned into swimmingpools, and how to create recreational urban spaces that are able to contain the rain water.

The exhibition “The Rain is Coming – how climate change adaptation can create better cities” took a closer look at how we can make sure our cities are ready for the changed weather of the future. The exhibition highlighted historical backgrounds and the challenges we face today, and it presented us with a number of solutions to handling water in urban landscapes in different ways.

In 19^th century Copenhagen, water ran freely in the streets, but since this was highly unhygienic, sewers were built throughout the city. Today, however, the sewers can’t handle it when large amounts of rain fall in a short amount of time. The solution to this problem might be to handle the water on the city surface, in its green and grey recreational spaces where new systems can also be transformed into new recreational cityscapes.

As a community, we need to make big investments in years to come to adapt our cities to climate change. “The Rain is Coming – how climate change adaptation can create better cities” held the powerful message that when we adapt to climate change, we can make better cities and increase the quality of life in them. Instead of only thinking about expanding our sewer systems, we need to develop new methods, new collaborations and new assets to the city in order to adapt to the new reality of climate change that we already feel the consequences of.