Mind the gap: Stakeholders perspective on resilience building in the City of Rotterdam

Author(s): Theresa Audrey Esteban

Abstract / Introduction (download full article at the bottom)

In 2016 the City of Rotterdam joined the 100 Resilient Cities of The Rockefeller Foundation. The 100 Resilient Cities is an initiative emphasizing the need for cities to build resilience. Rotterdam was one of the first to heed the call of the 100 Resilient Cities highlighting the city’s position as a frontrunner in addressing climate-adaptive urban planning projects and innovative means in dealing with flood risks and vulnerabilities. Learning from the great North Sea flood of 1953 disaster experience, the Netherlands ensured strong preventive measures making the country safe from flooding. The City of Rotterdam benefits from these strong preventive measures as this safeguards the city and the biggest and most important port in Europe from any disaster. However, these strong preventive measures have also muted the concept of resilience on the stakeholders.

This is also further weighed down by the many different initiatives present in the city. The paper seeks to investigate the institutional and non-institutional actors perspective on resilience and environmental threats in the City of Rotterdam. The research assumes that knowledge and experience on Rotterdam’s environmental vulnerabilities and threats lead to better collaboration between and among stakeholders in making the city resilient. This knowledge and experience also lead to the mutual adaptation of roles between the government and other stakeholders of the city such as the citizens, businesses, academe, civil society organizations among others. The research explores questions related to stakeholders perception on risk and vulnerability of the city to disasters, disaster awareness and concern, and their definition of resilience and a resilient city.

Publication: ISOCARP Congress Proceedings, pp.1688-1700
Year: 2019

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