Daylighting Østerå

Daylighting Østerå is an ambitious landscape and climate adaptation project, aiming to reconnect the city of Aalborg with the nature surrounding it.

The water flowing from the southern river valley to the Limfjord has been culverted ever since industrialization. But times have changed: The sewage system has been modernized, and the stream water is clean. Aalborg Municipality wanted to develop the Østerå area in a way that brings new nature qualities and stronger biodiversity, that adapts the city center to a changing climate, and creates new social meeting places.

SLA designed the new 2-km biodiverse river system with specially designed biotopes above and below sea level, new and improved social infrastructure, the addition of three new public parks to the city’s urban fabric – along with a multitude of new recreative connections through the city.

The project connects three new nature-based parks; Karolinelund, Åparken and Gabriel. From here you can follow the open course of the stream and a rich city nature with varied species. With a walking and cycling path throughout the project, the landscape design connects the city from one end to the other: From the magnificent nature surrounding the city to the urban part of central Aalborg.

The opening of the stream protects Aalborg against extreme rainfalls and cloudbursts. The greater capacity for diversion of rainwater relieves the rainwater catchments of the river and helps to make the city more robust to extreme rain events and cloudbursts.

Østerå is a part of Aalborg Municipality’s comprehensive strategy for creating a greener, climate-adapted and biodiverse Aalborg.

The three new riverside parks consist of:

Karolinelund: First a military garden with canals, then an amusement park, now an urban neighbourhood-park with large old trees, historical traces, and activities all day around. Karolinelund is stage one of the project and was inaugurated in 2023.

Åparken: A former railway area that has been left to itself, where a unique mix of species, also known as ruderat or terrain-vague, has been allowed to grow between railway tracks and large lamp posts.

Gabriel: The area where the river meets the city, where the watermills and later industry used the hydropower of Østerå river. A green and lush area where the running river will be a good living place for fish.

City nature and biodiversity

In each of the three parks, SLA is working with the local vegetation characteristics, aiming at creating a landscape rich in nature, constantly in process, evolving over time.

It is inherent in the project to create greater biodiversity on land, below water, and in between. The river restoration has already helped create a better ecological state in the Østerå river – and only one year after the inauguration of Karolinelund, rare Daubenton’s bats, usually only seen in the wild, were observed in the park.