Glasgow’s Smart Canal
Construction of Europe’s first ever ‘smart canal’ scheme, which will use the 250-year-old Forth & Clyde Canal and 21st century technology to mitigate flood risk as well as enable massive regeneration, is now underway in Glasgow.
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00:00 [Music]
00:05 Glasgow Smart Canal will mean that the whole of the north of Glasgow will be able to be redeveloped
00:11 where it's not been able to to date.
00:13 The surface water issues for redevelopment of five key sites around north Glasgow
00:18 meant that no development has occurred.
00:21 In north Glasgow there is limited capacity in the combined sewer system
00:28 so we had to find an innovative solution
00:31 and the proposal is to use the Forth and Clyde Canal
00:35 to transfer the surface water when it rains from these development sites to the River Kelvin.
00:40 The Smart Canal is transforming north Glasgow.
00:44 When heavy rain is forecast, the Smart Canal will use high-tech sensors and systems
00:50 to transfer water to the river.
00:52 Providing storage for up to 22 Olympic swimming pools of water,
00:56 the Smart Canal will absorb rainwater flowing off the land,
00:59 opening it up for regeneration.
01:01 When the wet weather passes, the water levels will return to normal
01:05 with the Smart Canal, helping to transform north Glasgow.
01:09 The use of the canal as part of the subsystem for this development
01:12 is a great example of how you can manage future flood risk.
01:16 It's the sort of thing we want to be doing at more greenfield and brownfield developments
01:20 across the country to manage future flood risk.
01:23 This is definitely a first for us in the UK,
01:26 using the canal dynamically to take surface water in such a way.
01:30 We really want to create this whole quarter in Glasgow to be the go-to destination
01:35 without a doubt in Glasgow, maybe in Scotland.
01:38 This regeneration will reconnect north Glasgow to the city centre
01:43 and bring regeneration, new homes and new jobs.
01:46 What we've been able to achieve now is to prove that the canal
01:50 can act like a big surface water pond and take all the floodwater
01:54 from all of these sites once they're developed,
01:56 and take it off and outfall it into the River Calvin.
01:59 And you've seen other examples of development around canals
02:03 in Birmingham, Liverpool, in London.
02:05 So we really want to make this whole of this quarter a real destination.
02:10 (birds chirping)