Rainproof cities in the Netherlands: approaches in Dutch water governance to climate-adaptive urban planning

Abstract

Due to increasingly frequent incidents of pluvial flooding of public spaces and private properties, climate-adaptive building and urban water management are gaining momentum in Dutch water governance. This study assesses the Dutch approach to urban water management by looking at the governance approaches of three of the largest Dutch municipalities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht. By analyzing the municipalities' governance approaches in a holistic way, paying attention to knowledge, organization and implementation, the research provides good practices in terms of different aspects of resilience as well as lessons regarding setting performance indicators in service levels, clarifying responsibility division, applying binding rules instead of soft policies, and more.

Diverging Ambitions and Instruments for Citizen Participation across Different Stages in Green Infrastructure Projects

“…To illustrate, in the creation of green infrastructure, governments can make use of legal instruments, such as regulations and norms, and market-based instruments, such as tenders and grants (Krause, Hawkins, Park, & Feiock, 2019). In addition, they have developed capacitybuilding and awareness-raising instruments to involve communities in taking climate adaptation measures (Dai, Wörner, & van Rijswick, 2018).…”

Pluvial flood risk and opportunities for resilience

“…As 21st century cities plan for billions of dollars in investment in flood resilience, there is an urgent need for a more comprehensive approach to urban that better represents the risks presented by pluvial flooding (Merz et al, 2014;Patrick, Solecki, Jacob, Kunreuther, & Nordenson, 2015). While pluvial flood mitigation is now being incorporated into urban resilience planning in many parts of the world (Dai, Wörner, & van Rijswick, 2017;Hall, Meadowcroft, Sayers, & Bramley, 2003;Jia, Shaw, & Qin, 2017), many cities in other regions have not yet begun this type of work. For example, although five of the six UREx Network Cities profiled in this review have experienced at least one recent, significant pluvial flooding event, only New York City has begun pilot studies on local pluvial flood risk mitigation and this work has not yet been fully institutionalized into city operations or planning (New York City Department of Environmental Protection/Ramboll, 2017).…”

Is Bangkok becoming more resilient to flooding? A framing analysis of Bangkok's flood resilience policy combining insights from both insiders and outsiders

“…An open and inclusive process is important for building flood resilience in Bangkok and in other cities in developing countries, that is, for developing a more holistic and integrated approach in urban flood risk management (Hegger et al, 2016;Restemeyer et al, 2015;Sörensen et al, 2016). Realizing urban flood resilience is context-dependent, and both top-down policy instruments and bottom-up local community engagement are important (Hegger et al, 2016;Dai, Wörner, & van Rijswick, 2018;Rosenzweig et al, 2018).…”