Increasing the Adaptive Capacity in Unembanked Neighborhoods? An Exploration into Stakeholder Support for Adaptive Measures in Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract

Cities in deltas are vulnerable to climate change, especially their unembanked neighborhoods that are not protected by dikes. Rising sea levels and extreme water levels in the rivers can lead to the flooding of these urban areas. The Netherlands has a long history in water management. However, building dikes and the elevation of land are traditionally treated as rather stand-alone measures. Attention is rarely paid to the surrounding area, let alone to the complex context of cities and certainly not to disadvantaged neighborhoods. Yet, inner-city area redevelopment may provide opportunities to integrate flood management in these planning processes. In order to investigate the support of stakeholders for risk-reducing adaptive measures and more resilient measures, we did research in an unembanked inner-city area in the city of Rotterdam (The Netherlands), in which we conducted in-depth interviews with the central stakeholders. The main conclusion is that the most important barriers for integrating climate adaptation measures into that neighborhood are the fragmentation of water-safety policy (e.g. elevation of rebuilding locations) and the hierarchical governance arrangement in water management. This type of fragmentation led on its turn to fragmentation with other policy goals for the neighborhood. It also led to fragmentation between different areas in the same neighborhood that received political attention and those that are excluded from water-safety policy. This questions the approach in terms of social justice. An important side effect is that this governance arrangement also restricted innovation towards climate adaptation. Therefore, integrating water-safety policies in urban planning (in its capacity as a more integrative and comprehensive spatial approach) should be considered the best option to increase the adaptive capacity in delta cities. Not only can the negative effects in terms of policy fragmentation be dealt with effectively, but also spatial fragmentation can be tackled.

Fighting the Ignorance: Public Authorities’ and Land Users’ Responses to Land Subsidence in Indonesia

“…Ye et al [17] showed that, by controlling groundwater withdrawal, land subsidence in Shanghai decreased to an average speed of 5.5 millimeter per year. Therefore, these detailed water-related policies must be accommodated in urban planning policies in order to increase the capacity of the adaptation [18].…”

Capacity Building for the Integration of Climate Adaptation into Urban Planning Processes: The Dutch Experience

“…Impacts of climate change are always locally measured and tackled and therefore have to be locally tailor-made [27], responding to the institutional arrangements of the local urban planning system. Hence, in order to be effective and balance flexibility and robustness, adaptation needs to match the institutional arrangements for planning and fit into the local planning processes [1]. Accordingly, in order to deal with the challenges of climate adaptation, the planning system needs a legal system that is firmly rooted in broadly accepted values as well as flexibility to adjust to local circumstances.…”

“…A strategy, firmly supported by a common understanding of the effects of climate change, starts with building common ground, which can function as a basis for the development of "goal entwinement" [1]. This can be understood as capacity building.…”

“…These municipalities are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Arnhem. Practical experience in integrating climate adaptation measures is rather new, and it is mainly limited (until now) to policy making and small technical adjustments, as examples in Rotterdam and Amsterdam have shown [1] [2]. Therefore, the analysis remains mostly theoretical and explorative.…”

“…The types of adaptation planned in this program anticipate climate changes that can already be observed; the adaptations include different kinds of structural measures, such as adjustments in urban design, temporal water storages etc. [1].…”