UTFacultiesEEMCSNewsStudent Creative Technology designs a bioswale animation for the Municipality of Enschede

Student Creative Technology designs a bioswale animation for the Municipality of Enschede

In the early 1990s, the Municipality of Enschede constructed the first bioswales – nowadays bioswales are an indispensable part of the urban area. But, what exactly is a bioswale? The Municipality of Enschede regularly received this question - so they went looking for a solution. Matthijs Mondria, Creative Technology student at the UT, started working for the Municipality of Enschede for his bachelor's graduation research!

You have probably seen the bioswales in the streets of Enschede. Last year, for example, a large bioswale was constructed on the Oldenzaalsestraat. But what exactly is a bioswale? In the event of heavy rainfall, the sewerage system cannot process large amounts of water, which could lead to flooding. A bioswale is one of the solutions; this acts as a buffer system, which fills with this rainwater and then slowly lowers it into the ground. This infiltration process reduces soil desiccation and helps to improve the quality of surface water.

Limited information

Although bioswales are being built in more and more cities, the provision of information about this is limited. Matthijs: “For questions about bioswales, the municipality of Enschede refers to a web page with a lot of text and a few images. To improve this information provision, the municipality proposed to develop an animation that explains exactly how a bioswale works.” Matthijs set to work on this for his bachelor's graduation research.

Further development of the animation

Last summer Matthijs completed his graduation research and presented the draft version to the Municipality of Enschede, where he received positive reactions: “I was delighted that the Municipality of Enschede reacted so enthusiastic to my animation. It was fantastic to hear that they wanted to further develop the animation and then actually bring it into the world.”

Last December, Matthijs started working on the animation again, and it is now ready. The municipality will use the animation in, for example, information material for residents or the website GroenBlauwEnschede.nl. This website offers residents and entrepreneurs of Enschede useful tips to adapt their homes and gardens to the weather of the future. In which it gets wetter, hotter and drier. A bioswale is one of those climate-adaptive solutions. Matthijs: “I hope that my animation will make a positive contribution to the provision of information about bioswales!”

*English subtitles are available. Simply click the settings wheel in YouTube!

Questions?

For substantive questions about the project, please contact Richard Bults, Creative Technology Graduation Project Coordinator.