Glasgow should learn to better ‘live with rain’, research suggests, as a councillor calls for the city to carry out more planning around the weather.
There needs to be a “deeper and more comprehensive acknowledgement” of Glasgow as a “rainy city” in the council’s development plan, Bailie Paul McCabe, SNP, believes.
He is planning to present a motion to a full council meeting this week which pushes for a “living with rain approach to planning”.
The city gets 1370mm of rainfall each year.
The motion follows a report by Dr Andrew Hoolachan and Dr Victoria Lawson, of the University of Glasgow, titled ‘Living with rain – planning for everyday life in Glasgow’.
That research investigated the role the planning system can play in shaping everyday life for people in a wet city. Rain impacts how people get around the city, use outdoor and public spaces and socialise, as well as influencing our moods, and mental and physical health, the report states.
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Bailie McCabe’s motion notes the “astonishing finding that despite technically within the zone of what meteorologists would classify as temperate rainforest, rain and wetness has never featured prominently in planning and other spatial and cultural strategies for our city”.
He adds the council’s open space strategy sets out the need for a “resilient” city as it will be “exposed to flood risk associated with an increased intensity of rainfall and with sea level rise”.
Bailie McCabe wants the council to agree it is “not enough to simply mitigate the effects of our climate”. He asks councillors to note the conclusion of the report that there is “a general absence of explicit understanding of Glasgow as a distinctively wet city”.
It suggests the city could benefit from “a holistic set of plans, programmes and developments to improve and enhance the urban experience”.
Officials will be asked to further engage with other cities to learn more about their approaches if the motion passes on Thursday. Vancouver, Cairns and Bergen were studied for the report.
Weather protection, shelter and “other rain-friendly design features” would be investigated in future public realm projects.
The ‘living with rain’ report states that “planning for rain should not simply be about managing surface water… but rather we must go one step further and think about rain as a holistic urban experience that affects public spaces, active and public travel and the general quality of everyday life in cities.
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“This ordinary reality of being in a temperate rainforest climate area is something that has historically been largely ignored in Glasgow.”
It recommends shelters or canopies in parks and other public spaces, partially covered rain spaces in Glasgow’s “numerous lanes”, larger bus shelters with green roofs and covered cycle parking areas.
The report also suggests a public education campaign on how to prepare for and manage living with rain and encouraging employers to provide spaces for staff to change, shower and store clothes to help them travel without using a car.
Charities could also help provide waterproof clothing in deprived communities, it adds, and “creative and joyful” public lighting and art might help during dark and wet months.
A closer working relationship between those who design and maintain roads is also suggested as well as ensuring trees used in public realm schemes are “ecologically appropriate for a wet climate”.
More information on the report can be found at bit.ly/4k83cWE.