Hotspot Rotterdam region

Rotterdam, the Port of Rotterdam and the region will receive large investments in spatial development and industry over the next ten years, of an amount totalling more than 10 billion euros. These investments will focus on further industrial development, increased port capacity, improved accessibility, urbanisation of the old port area and other areas and further urban development along the river. Much investment will be made in urban development and in improving the quality of life in the region, with opportunities being provided by the water and climate issues.

Rotterdam would like to become more attractive to middle and high income earners. Rotterdam also wants to create a more attractive investment climate, not just for international and new companies, but also for the current and future inhabitants of the city.

This can be achieved through investment in urban areas along the river and through the transformation of the old industrial and port areas, areas which are vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise.

Climate change is particularly important in this region due to:

changes in the risk of and the effects of flooding from the sea and the river and the influence these have on development in the port and urban areas
changes in river drainage and water level systems and their influence on the transport link with the rest of the country
changes in climate-related conditions, constraints and processes which have an effect on living, working and recreation in urban areas

It is very important that climate change is properly incorporated into spatial planning, to ensure that new investments made in the port and housing are climate proof.

Objective
To make the area both climate proof and as attractive as possible for living and working, with particular attention to be given to the port, transport and housing.

There are issues concerning safety, transport over water and urban development, and projects have been started to investigate the relationship between the Rotterdam programme line, other hotspots, areas upstream and international ports.

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

	HSRR01: Urban development - Urban water systems The possible challenges concerning climate change and urban development form an incentive to develop adaptation strategies for design and management of future urban water systems in the region Rotterdam. The relatively big city of Rotterdam is located in a highly populated river delta. Because of uncertainties in de consequences of climate change on the urban water system... read more
	HSRR02: Flood risk in unembanked areas Climate change (sea level rise, changing river discharge) has effect on the flood risk in the region of Rotterdam, in the protected as well as the unprotected areas. Within this project, the unprotected areas located within the Hotspot area will be subject of the following research: 1. Flood risk unprotected areas: climate scenarios will be translated to flood maps. Furthermore, maps will be... read more
	HSRR03b: closing the open Rijnmond - waterfront Rijnmond Policy measure are needed to keep the flood risk in the Hotspot region within the flood standards for the next century. One of the possible measures is to reinforce the dykes. Especially in urban areas the reinforcement of dykes is socially undesirable and leads to high costs. It might be possible to replace dyke reinforcements with strategically placed moveable high water barriers... 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
	HSRR05: Heat stress in the city of Rotterdam Heat stress seems to be a serious, but underestimated problem. The heat wave during the summer of 2003 for example caused 1.400 – 2.200 heat related deaths in The Netherlands. Rotterdam is aiming to adapt to climate change. Reducing the Urban Heat Island effect, heat stress and its consequences is a component of adapting to climate changes. In this project the Urban Heat Island effect... read more
	HSRR06: Safe and multifunctional urban levees Climate change and resulting rise of water levels makes large scale measures necessary. Especially in urban areas the traditional strengthening of the flood protection would lead to an undesired situation. The use of space for flood protection alone doesn’t match with the densification of urban area. The questions is how to shape the main flood protection in such a manner that is not just... read more
	HSRR07/HSGR08: Relationship between perceived flood risks, problem ownership and household and business adaptation choices The present project focuses on climate-related flood safety issues in a spatial planning context. It investigates the relationship between flood risk perception, problem ownership and household and business adaptation choices. The aim is to provide policy-makers... read more
	HSRR08: Consequences of climate change for inland shipping For a great deal the competitive position of the inland waterway transport sector is determined by price and reliability. These could be placed under pressure due to the effects of climate change. That might result in loss of cargo to other modes of transport, and thus might impact the portion in the modal split. An increase in costs and a less reliable inland waterway transport also has... read more
	HSRR09: Adaptive strategies for the urban floodplain of Hotspot Rotterdam The municipality of Rotterdam has the ambition to transform existing and new unembanked areas to intensively used areas for living and working. To maintain the security, sustainability and attractiveness of these areas it is necessary to gain insight in adaptive development strategies. The adaptive measures can be found on... read more