Urban planning, water management and climate change strategies: adaptation, mitigation and resilience narratives in the Netherlands

Abstract

There are few countries in the world where the importance of addressing climate change in urban policy is as acutely felt as in the Netherlands. As a low-lying country located on a large river delta, it is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Its vulnerable position is one of the reasons why the country (and several of its cities) is a leading player in climate change-related initiatives. Although some of the policy responses to climate change are based on water management tasks that predate all climate change debates, a range of new responses involving both adaptation and mitigation have been developed at the national and local levels in the Netherlands. Recent shifts in policy have been accompanied by the emergence of a new underlying concept – the concept of resilience. This paper has two main areas of investigation. First, it examines the shifts in emphasis on climate change adaptation and mitigation in urban planning, water management and climate change strategies. Second, it studies the origins and nature of the concept of urban resilience and the way in which the notion has permeated national and local policy in the Netherlands. The city of Rotterdam is used to illustrate the situation at the local level. The paper reveals shifting emphases on adaptation and mitigation over time and across different policy documents as well as a range of interpretations of the concept of resilience.