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Case study city: Rotterdam

Located in western Holland, Rotterdam has a population of 600 000 and is increasing both in numbers of people as well as in city area size. Located by a river delta, sea level rise is the most imminent climate change effect that the city is expected to face.

The URBES activities in Rotterdam focus on governance and aims at defining a design of the city's governance system that can meet three objectives: one, protect urban biodiversity; two, improve urban resilience; and three, ensure effective governance of ecosystem services.

In step one, a list of existing and recommended policies will be created, and their effectiveness will be analyzed. The scenario work from Work Package 6, which will include four possible future land-use scenarios of Rotterdam and Stockholm, will be used as guide.

In step two, the institutional support mechanisms or obstacles to achieving effective policies will be assessed. Matching the suggested governance structures with effective policies will create governance bundles that can support urban biodiversity and increased resilience.

Rotterdam is host city for the the URBES partner DRIFT. Contact person is , leader for URBES Work Package 7, Governance of Urban biodiversity: Institutions, Policies and Ecosystem Services.


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New from Rotterdam

WP 7, led by DRIFT, hosted the first URBES science workshop in November 2012, where research strategies was discussed during two days.

Stakeholder workshops with representatives from the municipality are being planned for the spring, to discuss policies and identify preferred development paths for Rotterdam.