Hotspot The Haaglanden region

The Haaglanden region is a unique area. The region includes the conurbation of The Hague and a high concentration of greenhouse cultivation. The limits of urban expansion have just about been reached in the Haaglanden region. In order to match economic and population growth to this fact, authorities in the Haaglanden region have decided to implement the restructuring and compaction of existing urban and greenhouse cultivation areas in the coming years, though this will be complicated by the large demand for space for water. This demand is related to the effects of climate change, which have already begun to have an effect: extreme storms have already caused flooding and damage several times.

The scale at which the water issue will play a role, combined with urban and economic functions, requires an integrated regional approach. After all, the ‘each to his own’ approach no longer works. All parties in the region, governmental and commercial bodies, share the urgency of the issue and wish to cooperate in gaining more experience in other ways of solving the water problem. The public authorities in Haaglanden drew up the Regional Administrative Agreement on Water in February 2006, in which agreements were made concerning an innovative and collective approach. These are to take place through the realisation of a number of representative pilot projects (in urban areas, greenhouse cultivation areas and grassland areas), where short term concrete investment decisions concerning the water issue are linked to long term climate adaptation.

Objective
Develop concrete adaptation strategies for climate change (in the form of precipitation extremes in particular) for a number of pilot projects in the very urban environment of Haaglanden.

Identify the climate knowledge issues, based on the following themes:

water storage and drainage capacity in the case of extreme precipitation in the urban environment
the coastal position and the security aspect
the position of greenhouse cultivation in a changing climate
the consequences of climatic effects for the investment climate and the surroundings

Midterm Assessment 2012 (webpage)
Midterm Review Report: Sonja Döpp (Knowledge for Climate) (editor), Arno Lammers (The Hague Region – Stadsgewest Haaglanden) (2012). Hotspot Haaglanden, Midterm Assessment 2012, KfC report number 66/2012.

Projects and Publications
Watch the overview with all the Haaglanden Region projects and publications.

	HSHL01A: Climate in spatial decision making The consequences of climate change on water management aren’t taken into account sufficiently when choosing locations for new functions or redevelopment of current locations. A good assessment is of importance to prevent high costs in future water management. The goal of this project is to develop and apply dialogue supporting assessment framework. This framework will ensure that... read more
	HSHL02: Future of the fen meadow area The open area between Haaglanden and Rijnmond is an important outlet area for recreation, with people coming from the surrounding urbanized area. The available space is under increasing pressure and it has been designated as a metropolitan park in the Randstad 2040 plans. Climate change also affects this fen meadow area by an increase of the shortage as well as excess of water... read more
	HSHL05/HSRR04: Region specific climate information for Haaglanden and Rotterdam The goal of this project is to make climate data and information about the current and future climate specific for the region Haaglanden and Rotterdam. The focus is on the climate effects which will concern users who are affected by climate in the area. Potentially affected users will be identified, as well as their dependency on climate... read more
	HSHL06/HSHL12: Broad, region specific reconnaissance of effects of climate change in relation to future scenarios and trends Changes in climate and society ask for an adaptation of the current spatial planning in The Haaglanden. In this project, research on areal specific effects of climate change in relation to the expected socio economic developments will be done. The goal is to be... read more
	HSHL08: Demonstration project multifunctional landuse for water storage in the greenhouse sector In this polder in the urban area of Haaglanden and the municipality of Westland an innovative solutions is sought for realizing water retention. The project will join in on current spatial planning processes and innovative concept of closing the water cycle, the 4B-concept, where industrial waste water is purified to irrigation water... read more

Deltas in Times of Climate Change II Conference

24-26 September 2014
Rotterdam, the Netherlands