Glasgow’s Smart Canal Wins Greatest Contribution to Scotland Award

That the Parliament congratulates the teams behind the development of Glasgow’s Smart Canal on winning the Greatest Contribution to Scotland Award at the Scottish Civil Engineering Awards 2020-21; notes that the Scottish Civil Engineering Awards are jointly managed by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Scotland and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Scotland; considers the awards to be the premier showcase for engineering excellence in the built environment, celebrating innovation and the vital contribution that civil engineers make to designing, upgrading and maintaining Scotland’s critical infrastructure; understands that Glasgow’s Smart Canal uses sensors and predictive weather technology to provide early warning of wet weather before moving excess rainfall from residential and business areas into stretches of the canal where water levels have been lowered by as much as 10 cm; further understands that the system creates 55,000 cubic metres of extra capacity for floodwater, the equivalent to 22 Olympic swimming pools, transforming North Glasgow into a "sponge city" and unlocking land for housing-led regeneration; applauds the lead contractor, Mackenzie Construction, and Scottish Canals for using pioneering technology to make Glasgow a leading example of how cities can adapt to climate change in the year of the COP26 UN climate summit; believes that Glasgow’s Smart Canal is the first of its kind in Europe, and looks forward to the technology being used in other areas across Scotland and the UK in future.