For waterThis website deals with near-natural stormwater management.

This term denotes measures leading to retention of water in the landscape and imitation of natural runoff conditions of the area before it was urbanized. Stormwater management systems include those that support evaporation, infiltration and slow runoff into the local water cycle. They also involve measures contributing, to a certain extent, to the preservation of a natural water cycle, e.g. by accumulating and using stormwater or by retaining it and regulating its runoff into the sewerage system.

More detailed information about the principles of stormwater management is to be found in the information brochure.

The information on the website being quite extensive, it generally revolves around water and its return to the landscape.

This website was created within the „We Count on Water“ project funded from the Swiss-Czech Cooperation Programme and by the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic carried out by 01/71 ZO ČSOP Koniklec between June 2013 and March 2016.

Main project outputs

  • Publication „Stormwater Management in the Czech Republic”
    • published in March 2015, the book is based on legal regulations currently valid in the Czech Republic and can be useful for both water law authorities and planners in selecting the right stormwater management solutions.
  • Map of practices – online map database showing examples of stormwater management solutions in the Czech Republic.
  • Online guide to decision-making in building planning and approval procedures – by answering questions in the online guide, you will find out if the draining system of the building planned is in accordance with the best stormwater management practices.
  • Stormwater Management Strategy for Prague 12 – expert approach to suitable stormwater management methods in a Prague metropolitan district.
  • Website www.pocitamesvodou.cz – information portal providing knowledge and experience related to stormwater management.

Project activities

The project and its activities will last until December 2021:

  • Expert advice: We provide answers to frequently asked questions related to stormwater and its role in urbanism, answered by our expert advisors.
  • Stormwater management workshops: The project involved 3 series of workshops with experts in selected cities all over the Czech Republic.
  • Excursions abroad showing the best management practices in Germany, Switzerland and Austria – drawing inspiration from stormwater management measures employed in countries with a longer stormwater management tradition.
  • „We Count on Water“ conference – 3 international conferences (March 2015, February 2016, May 2018): expert meetings on stormwater management allowing for exchange of experience in an international context.
  • Building a garden pond in the grounds of the Montessori primary school in Prague 12.
  • Building a vertical garden: First demonstration and education garden in Prague can be found at the school of horticulture in Prague 12 – Komořany.

The main outputs of the project

About organization Ekocentrum Koniklec

Ekocentrum Koniklec is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation involved in a broad scope of environmental activities. Its activities include environmental education, raising awareness about the environment, environmental counselling and nature protection. As part of the environmental education and raising awareness about the environment, we organise short-term and long-term environmental education programmes, both indoors and in the field, for kindergartens, primary schools and eight-year grammar schools.

Together with five other non-profit organisations, it manages the Ekoporadny Praha environmental counselling, which also involves issuing environmental flyers, publishing articles and organising workshops. Nature protection entails protecting horse chestnuts, surveying the greenery in Prague streets, monitoring alien plants, promoting habitats in new neighbourhoods, creating, repairing and maintaining educational trails, and planting orchards of traditional varieties of apple and pear trees. Another long term project involves activities related to stormwater, i.e. primarily to stormwater management in the landscape and built-up areas (such as the countrywide project Počítáme s vodou (We Count on Water)) and related to climate change adaptation of settlements (such as the countrywide project Adaptace (Adaptation)) aiming at mitigating the negative impacts of climate change on settlements in the Czech Republic. On the local level, it builds a stormwater pond, a vertical garden or revitalizes courtyards creating community spaces, etc.

It also organises events for the general public (Earth Day events, ecofestivals, fairs, campaigns, celebrations and festivals) and public administration (workshops, conferences). It organises activities for families and excursions to community gardens and family farms.