Blue green infrastructure, from niche to mainstream: Challenges and opportunities for planning in Stockholm

The need for a transformation from conventional rainwater drainage systems towards Blue Green Infrastructure systems, designed as open spatial systems for sustainable rainwater management, is acknowledged. However, these systems are viewed as sociotechnical systems and, consequently, this transition has been slow. This paper focuses on the planning processes behind Blue Green Infrastructure projects in Stockholm and analyse them as transition experiments, addressing the question: what challenges and opportunities can be identified to enable the new systems to become a common component of rainwater management practices? Based on a literature review, this paper presents a methodological framework by identifying the key factors for facilitating or blocking sociotechnical change. These cluster around six categories –– context, actors, instruments, processes, outputs and outcomes, and impacts. The paper used the framework to collect data and analyse three urban projects. Stockholm has remarkable strengths associated with moving towards new solutions, in terms of receptive contexts, human agency, space for experimentation, and a collaborative planning culture. However, there is a need for renegotiating the positional power of the actors involved in the planning systems in order to provide opportunities for water professionals to establish a stronger role in fitting the new solutions into the overall landscape, and urban planning processes and goals.