A violent rainstorm in Copenhagen on 2 July 2011 posed a significant problem for one of the world's oldest amusement parks.
Since the inundation the management of
Tivoli, whose gardens were founded in 1843, has drawn up an
emergency response plan and made essential changes to the amusement
park in order to reduce its vulnerability. Tivoli also has plans
for further adaptation to the changing climate.
During the downpour on 2 July 2011, a 24-hour reading of rainfall
in the Greater Copenhagen area showed a local maximum of 135.5 mm -
the highest measurement for precipitation in 55 years. Furthermore,
the epicentre of the downpour was in a particularly vulnerable
area. A very large percentage of Copenhagen's districts are paved
and, due to very low permeability, cannot adequately channel or
absorb extreme amounts of water.
A historic event with tangible
results
With
its central location at the heart of Copenhagen, Tivoli was one of
the areas that experienced the full force of the downpour. For the
first time in the gardens' 168-year history, the management decided
to evacuate the park as a precautionary measure.
The
incident made it clear that management would have to rethink
Tivoli's existing emergency plans very carefully. At the same time,
it was necessary to reconsider the general layout of the gardens
and the location of various sensitive technical installations and
warehouses in order to better cope with similar events in the
future.
Tivoli is highly sensitive to weather conditions,
the more so since it is now open throughout almost all the year. In
light of this, the management chose to put special emphasis on
equipping the facilities to deal with and withstand all conditions,
including new and changing weather phenomena traditionally not
associated with the Danish climate.
According to the Deputy Director of
Operations and Development at Tivoli, Mogens Ramsløv, the various
stakeholders showed enormous goodwill from the very start of work
on reducing the park's vulnerability. The park's own maintenance
staff worked long into the night following the downpour of 2
July.
"There was a very special team spirit,
with everyone working extra hard. Based on the experience of this
extreme event, we were able to quickly make a list of simple but
focused actions that gave us concrete results in terms of climate
adaptation. We started with the easiest measures", Ramsløv
explains.
"We
mapped out and prioritised the contingency plan, adding a new
chapter on extreme rainfall. We added flood defence barriers to
contingency stores and started to rethink the locations of electric
installations, compressors, storage, building materials etc.
Furthermore we upgraded our central pumping stations and put
agreements in place for hiring smaller pumps. These were all
relatively straightforward initial measures."
Working towards more climate-ready
gardens
Tivoli also started identifying long-term
solutions, a process that involved a wide spectrum of different
external partners.
"We
found our regular staff to be very open and forthcoming, whilst
external actors proved more difficult to contact" Ramsløv explains.
He draws attention to the need to be proactive instead of passing
on the problem or waiting for someone else (for example the
municipality) to take care of it.
When
asked what advice he would give to others in a similar situation,
Ramsløv suggests:
"Ensure that clear agreements are in place
between your company and other local actors about what they can and
should deliver when faced with extreme weather. Also ensure that
the responsibilities of all involved parties are clearly outlined
and underline the fact that you as a company would rather have too
many warnings than too few and risk ending up without sufficient
response time to cope with extreme weather."
Future challenges
Beside the agreements made with
authorities, local actors and suppliers, Tivoli was able to draw up
a list of clear goals:
- Inform and educate own staff
- Upgrade own contingency plans as well as
equipment such as pumps, generators and so on.
- Improve communication
- Make Tivoli less vulnerable
- Expand own stationary pump
systems
- Rethink the park layout, move electrical
installations, pathway crossings and communication
platforms
- Expand sewer systems and add stop
valves
- Close basement toilets
- Add
more waterproof barriers
Several unique circumstances however make
it hard to for Tivoli to immediately address all these elements to
everyone's complete satisfaction.
Technical complexity
Tivoli is a complex enterprise. It resembles in
itself an urban district, with independent restaurants, leased
premises and Tivoli's own amusements. Many of the older buildings
were originally designed for summer use and have been modified
along the way to cope with winter opening. Still, some buildings
are just no match for intense precipitation and water finds its way
in.
With
a total area of only 82,717 m2 which has to serve a wide array of
purposes, Tivoli has had to build extensive underground storage
areas beneath practically every building in the park. These
basements and other low lying facilities suffered a lot of damage
during the 2 July downpour and the cleaning and repairs are
expected to run to February 2012.
In
most areas of the park, it is difficult to start large construction
projects without affecting visitors.
Old,
complex electrical installations also prove difficult to change or
renovate without closing down large parts of the amusement
park.
When
faced with very heavy rain, the need to channel water away becomes
paramount. And in Tivoli, the only place to direct the water is a
small lake in the middle of the park.
However, as the picture below clearly
shows, the lake doesn't have the capacity to carry large amounts of
additional water.
Costs
In
its efforts to prioritise visitor safety, Tivoli's management has
decided that defending Tivoli against future extreme rainfall
events cannot wait. Precautionary measures were implemented quickly
in order to heighten park safety. As a result, the changes in
Tivoli have been relatively expensive, and when compared with
climate adaptation in other parts of the community, they have no,
or very few, associated benefits. The money spent must be seen as a
pure expense in connection with climate adaptation on Tivoli's
annual budget.
However the experience gained has effected
a change in the way Tivoli thinks about preventive
planning.