Opening Golf to the World
Brøndby Golf Club
Brøndby Golf Club have embraced water harvesting across the site to become nearly self sufficient in terms of irrigation water supply. The Club have embraced innovative ways of thinking and harvest water offsite, solving a drainage problem for the local municipality whilst also increasing their water supply.
Founded in 1997, Brøndby Golf Club is built upon old farmland, with the course encompassing a model medieval village, allotments, orchards and forest. The Club has very strong environmental principles which are reflected in the design of the Club's drainage and irrigation system.
The course currently has three interconnected large lakes onsite, into which a large proportion of the site's drainage is directed. Water can be pumped between lakes in order to maintain optimum levels. The irrigation system is directly connected to the lake system which provides roughly 5000m3 a year of 'free' water. The club also have a backup borehole licence for 3500m3 a year, but normally only require a top up of around 1000m3 from the borehole into the lake system. However, in recent years this has been stretched due to the long dry spells experienced in summer.
In recent years, a major government funded transport construction project is taking place on the Club's western boundary. A large light weight railway and cycle path is being constructed to connect various municipalities as part of a multiple billion-euro project. Originally the project's engineers were proposing to build a small holding reservoir to store drainage water from the new track and cycle pathway, before discharging to the Baltic sea.
Following discussions with the Club, it was agreed that a much more sensible option would be to discharge into the Club's lake system. This will realise around 3500m3 a year of water for the Club and will save the local municipality 100,000's of euros in reservoir construction costs. The drainage will also be treated and filtered before entering the course, thus providing a clean and free supply of water each year which further provides significant water security to the Club. The project is due to be constructed in 2020-2022.
Key Numbers
- Current irrigation requirement: 5-6000m3 a year
- Lake water provision: 5000m3 a year
- Borehole licence: 3500m3 (usual requirement 1000m3 a year
- Further water provided by cycle and rail development: 3500m3 a year
