CRC Key Issues

The IFHP Working Group Climate Resilient Cities wants to continue and intensify the function of international knowledge accelerator and generator, this time focussing on the issues of mitigation and adaptation as urgent strategies to cope with impact of climate change.

Climate Change
The climate consists of a set of constant changing factors on a global scale. Due to global warming, the fluctuations in climatological conditions such as temperature and precipitation are becoming more extreme. These changes do affect most aspects of spatial organization and conditions, in urban, rural and natural environments.

Resilience
The ability to maintain liveable conditions under fluctuating influences. Ok, so it’s going to be warmer in summer and colder in winter, it’s going to rain harder during short periods, or not at all over extended periods of time. Let’s prepare our living environments to be able to withstand these influences.

Climate Resilience can be achieved in different ways; but in the end a system has to be able to maintain itself in terms of energy, food, water, etc. as much as possible. Ideally each settlement or community has the ability to sustain itself in its needs and can provide for a limited buffer capacity to help others in case of emergency.

Climate Resilience aims at developing spatial strategies in order to deal with these changes, by using intelligent and sustainable resources and methods, based on participative collaboration, creativity promotion and smart technology.

Strategies

Two main strategies emerge when it comes to building up Climate Resilience.

Externalizing the climate changes: the problems are affluent from far distance, so solutions can be invented on due time and are appropriate to the size of the problem. This means that entities have time to take care of their own problem; e.g. building a ‘terp’ or insulating your house. The changes still occur, but due to the design changes the effects are dampened. This approach is familiar with flexible risk management.

Internalizing the climate changes is a different approach; it involves maximizing the defences and minimizing the risks, making sure the negative effects aren’t felt. E.g. (national) building higher dikes around the polders, or (local) installing an air-conditioning unit; the changes still occur, but don’t affect individuals, as long as technology works. This approach does lean on maximal risk avoidance.

3 Key issues on Climate Change

The following key issues are proposed for the Working Group: Energy, Water, Mobility.

Energy
Energy is an important theme in all planning exercises. In the past, energy production took place on the surface of the earth, taking advantage of wood-, wind- and water-power. With the discovery of coal, and later oil and uranium as energy sources, the production of energy disappeared out of sight, moving underground. Today, however, energy production has returned to the surface. With the need to reduce CO2 emissions and the future running out of (economically viable) coal and oil supplies – wind, solar and biomass production are becoming increasingly visible in our landscapes.

Central question here is: How we can make better use of the energy potential of the land- and cityscape and how can we cope with the influx of decentralized renewable resources appearing in our landscapes, and not always for the better.

We aim at: Decentralized energy production embedded in the landscape in a way that maximizes the energy potential of the land- and cityscapes; and at the same time enhances the aesthetics.

Our ambition: We would like to bring planning-and related professionals together both in the practical field and the scientific field, to generate ideas that help answer these questions.

The Energy Landscapes In Transition Europe ELITE project seeks to address these questions through an INTERREG IVC.

In addition to exploration of the effects of changing energy production, the working group will also identify other challenges in making our cities “climate resilient.” We will explore these issues through debate, discussion and knowledge sharing/generation.

Water
Great fluctuations in water supply can cause trouble, especially in densely populated urban delta areas. The changing climate causes ever greater fluctuations of water supply. The yearly flooding rivers have been deepened and straightened over the past century, allowing for easier transport, irrigation or drainage of areas. How can we incorporate the fluctuating supply of water, and take care of the right use, storage and drain in an efficient manner?

Central question here is: What are affordable spatial planning concepts that can cope with extreme water fluctuation both in terms of smart use, excess and shortage of water. We aim at: Allocation of essential spatial activities in a resilient way; spatial planning concepts that can cope with expected extreme fluctuations of the water levels. Taking into account concepts like ‘supply, storage and run off’ water management.

Mobility
Mobility is essential for a self supporting society. Adaptive mobility strategies are inherent to smart spatial structuring of the living environment. Moreover, related to the threats that accompany severe weather conditions, which may cause a need to evacuate large number of people, it is of an urgent necessity to be able to rely on efficient mobility systems.

Central question here is: How can we create and sustain climate resilient mobility, keeping the spatial and environmental impact as low as possible and design smart mobility concepts for sustainable urban and rural societies?

We aim at: mobility and settlement concepts that enable people to communicate and connect in a sustainable way, taking the effects of climate dynamics into account