Polski
Rainwater Under Control, Mowers on Autopilot: The Green City Speeds Up
This week in the urban green infrastructure industry reveals two parallel trends: increasingly bold, if modest-scale, blue-green infrastructure projects in Polish cities, and a global race to automate green-space maintenance equipment. From Pelplin to China, the direction is the same: less manual labor, more data, and nature doing the work for us.
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01 · Blue-Green Infrastructure
Pelplin Shows That a Small Rain Garden Can Solve a Big Problem [1]
On Starogardzka Street in Pelplin, next to the Family Support Center, the city's first dry rain garden has been built. It's a small but carefully engineered structure: a permeable substrate and planted filtration layers that allow rainwater to gradually soak into the ground instead of running off the surface [1].
The problem the project addresses was very specific: during heavy rainfall, water used to flood a stretch of sidewalk more than 500 meters long. Thanks to funding from the Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Gdańsk, the city was able to implement a solution well known in large metropolises but still rare in smaller towns [1].
The rain garden in Pelplin is a textbook example of blue-green infrastructure: it retains water, filters out pollutants, and at the same time boosts biodiversity by creating a microhabitat for insects. It's a reminder that urban resilience to heavy rainfall doesn't always require huge budgets — sometimes a well-designed patch of greenery in the right spot is enough. A pilot like this could encourage other towns of similar size to invest in distributed, local retention rather than costly, centralized stormwater sewers [1].
02 · Green Space Automation
When Drones Come Down to Earth: XAG Launches the Autonomous RM80 Mower [2]
From a completely different part of the world — and a different scale of business — comes a signal that green-space maintenance automation is entering a new phase. China's XAG, known so far mainly for its agricultural drones, has been steadily building out an ecosystem of autonomous ground machines. The latest piece of the puzzle is the RM80, an electric, four-wheeled mower that plans its own route, mows and clears vegetation, and returns to base on its own once the job is done [2].
The RM80 doesn't operate in a vacuum. XAG pairs it with its P-series drones, agricultural rovers, and autopilot systems for conventional machinery, creating a cohesive automation offering — from drone flight, through spraying, to mowing and moving across terrain on wheels. It's a strategy that clearly goes beyond just "flying": the company is betting on an automated workflow covering the entire maintenance of large green areas [2].
For the green-space maintenance equipment market, this is both a warning sign and a source of inspiration. Drone manufacturers, armed with know-how in navigation, route planning, and autonomy, are starting to compete with traditional mower and gardening-equipment brands on their own turf. In the coming years, the line between the "drone" and "ground" automation segments may simply blur [2].
03
Two Poles of the Same Revolution
The rain garden in Pelplin and XAG's autonomous mower are worlds apart in scale and geography, but they share one thing: urban green infrastructure is ceasing to be mere aesthetics and becoming a system — managed through water, data, and algorithms. Some are optimizing nature to work for us; others are building machines to take care of it themselves. The two approaches will increasingly intertwine.
You'll find more similar case studies, equipment, and discussions about the future of urban green space maintenance at URBAN GreenTech Expo 2027 – the Trade Fair for Equipment and Technology for Urban Green Area Maintenance. See you there!
Invitation
Curious what a rain garden looks like up close, or how an autonomous mower handles real-world terrain? Come to URBAN GreenTech Expo 2027, where you'll meet blue-green infrastructure suppliers and manufacturers of autonomous green-space maintenance equipment. It's a chance to see these technologies live and talk to the people implementing them. Book the date today!
URBAN GreenTech Expo 2027Footnotes
[1] tcz.pl — https://www.tcz.pl/wiadomosci/pierwszy-miejski-ogrod-deszczowy-w-pelplinie-juz-powstal-67de4a256275e97b[2] TechNode — https://technode.com/2026/10/02/beyond-the-drone-bet-on-the-autonomous-farm
This review was prepared by the Ptak Warsaw Expo editorial team.