INTERNATIONAL NETWORK FOR RESILIENT WATERFRONT COMMUNITIES: INCLUSIVE INNOVATION FOR RESILIENCE IN DELTA CITIES 1
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MISSION Building on the Brooklyn-Rotterdam Waterfront Exchange program (2010-2014) Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (RDM Center of Expertise) and Pratt Institute (Programs for Sustainable Planning & Development) propose to initiate and foster a worldwide network of game changers and decision makers to bring about local inclusive innovation for resilient waterfront communities. We aim to help local resiliency projects and to educate future resiliency leaders. Initial actions of the network for knowledge exchange include: 1) Online Community of Practice 2) Joint research and education on implementation of resiliency and adaptation measures in local communities 3) Onsite exchange of community leaders, students and researchers
TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Effects of Climate Change on Delta Cities... 1 II. Adaptive and Resilient Urban Waterfront Communities in Delta Cities... 1 III. The Need for Innovative and Affordable Solutions and Local Implementation... 2 IV. Involving Community Leaders and Applied Research in Global Knowledge Exchange... 2 V. Goal: A Network of Game Changers... 3 VI. Research Approach Inclusive Innovations for Adaptation and Resilience... 3 VII. Build on Brooklyn-Rotterdam Waterfront Exchange and linked to Connecting Delta Cities Network... 5 VIII. What do we do?... 7
I. EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON DELTA CITIES Urban waterfronts are great places to live, work and play. In both developed and developing countries, waterfronts of delta cities offer the dual function of supporting various economic industries, as well as providing amenities for urban dwellers. It is estimated that in 2050, half of the world population will be living within 100 kilometers from the coast. Many of these populations are and will be in vulnerable floodplains. Recent events in New York, New Orleans, and London have shown that this vulnerability is not just restricted to the developing world, as the advanced Western countries are equally susceptible in physical and social terms. The recent updated warnings that sea level is rising twice as fast as was forecasted now sheds a brighter light on the vulnerability of hundreds of millions of people living in Delta Cities. Next to the threat of sea-level rise, more extreme weather patterns such as tropical cyclones, hurricanes and rain and surge events are other imminent risks facing coastal cities. Indeed, in some parts of the world, inland flooding is occurring more often and on a more intense basis. It is now undeniable that the impacts of climate change will be felt strongly in the years to come. If sea levels rise by just one meter, many major coastal cities will be under imminent threat: Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, New York, Lagos, Alexandria, Mumbai, Kolkata, Dhaka, Shanghai, Osaka-Kobe and Tokyo, just to mention some mega cities that are extremely vulnerable to climate change and face immediate challenges. II. ADAPTIVE AND RESILIENT URBAN WATERFRONT COMMUNITIES IN DELTA CITIES Over the centuries of living with the water, the Dutch have learned that it is not just about fighting the water. Rather, they have learned that the best way to deal with the threat is to use the economic richness of the waterfront and, by collaborating, strengthen the inner resilience of the communities. Resiliency in this way taps into the issues underlying climate change: the need to (re)build in ways that take ecology, economy, social and physical infrastructure and weather uncertainty into account. Key elements are absorbance, self-organization, community organization and capacity for learning and adaptation. In this context, resilience may be defined as the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses 1
and systems within a city to survive and maintain stability in the face of chronic stresses and acute shocks stimulated directly or indirectly by climate change. III. THE NEED FOR INNOVATIVE AND AFFORDABLE SOLUTIONS AND LOCAL IMPLEMENTATION The waterfront community is our focal point as we view that the ability to deal with major urban environmental stresses are mainly attributed to the relative socio-economic disparities and the participative strength of a community itself and its ability to implement responsive technological and social innovations. As most delta cities are in developing countries, smart adaptation strategies are preferred over expensive defense systems. In the case of disasters with communities being cutoff from the larger urban organizational and physical infrastructures, it is the community on its own that has to be able to deal with the forces at hand as a matter of coping. Innovative urban design and local organizational capacity will help to secure a safe and prosperous future for Delta City communities with the utilization of high and low technologies integrated with strategic communication, engagement, education and capacity building. IV. INVOLVING COMMUNITY LEADERS AND APPLIED RESEARCH IN GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE As the risk of climate change proliferates in tandem with an accelerated rate of urbanization, the need for exchange of knowledge and practice on this global level become critical. There are numerous initiatives, programs and networks of local governments, nation states and global business dealing with the issues of resilience and urban development. Thus far, collaborations have mainly focused on knowledge and exchange at governmental and institutional scales. We see a tremendous value and a fundamental need to engage local community leaders and their constituencies and academics in the field of applied research focusing on the actual challenges at hand as a process of on-the-ground implementation of solutions which serve the dual capacity of empowering the waterfront community. While top-down institutional exchange is critical for the distribution of collective knowledge, so too is the bottom-up exchange which engages practical applications and experiments which serve both the public and private sectors. To meet the urgency of implementation of resiliency measures 2
and the challenges of an affordable and appropriate solutions the network aims to: Strengthen waterfront communities in Delta Cities and acknowledge the need for communities that are both aesthetically pleasing and socially and economically viable, adaptive, resilient and functional; Set-an-example of how academics working in a participatory manner at a variety of levels can be a local force in community engagement and socio-economic development; and, Facilitate the exchange of community leaders, faculty, students and knowledge, pertaining to adaptation and resiliency issues. Our goal is to initiate and foster a worldwide network of game changers to bring about local inclusive innovation for resilient waterfront communities. V. GOAL: A NETWORK OF GAME CHANGERS Our aim is to bring together thought leaders from science, industry, governments and communities to organize multiscalar knowledge exchange and to foster local implementation of smart and sustainable solutions to enhance the resiliency and adaptation of waterfront communities, making use of existing international networks. The initiators will open up their (inter)national networks in science, industry and government to local projects in delta cities and link them to public and private decision makers, practitioners and community based organizations. We will use the power of the network to bridge the gap between the knowledge available and the implementation of innovative solutions to enhance resiliency and economic development of constituent in local communities. VI. RESEARCH APPROACH INCLUSIVE INNOVATIONS FOR ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE The prime object of our joint research, education and advice is the waterfront community. This community is part of a delta city which is as such our secondary object of research. The global changes in economy, ecology and technology might be considered as context variables. To direct our research subject resilience we have developed the following model interrelating its key elements. The model takes a normative standpoint 3
stating that empowerment and employment add to the resilience of a community, as do a valuable and durable local economy, feasible and radical technology and a livable and sustainable ecology. The model links these core concepts by the terms capability, investment, impact and capacity. (Diagram 1) This model leads to practice oriented research questions such as: How can the resilience of a waterfront community be improved by organization in order to use its full capacity to empower people and create a more livable environment prior to an event and in order to enable it to be resilient? How can the resilience of a waterfront community be improved by clever and appropriate urban design and by implementing new radical technologies that have an impact on the sustainability of the community s ecology and of its surroundings? How can the resilience of a waterfront community be improved by the direct and sustained participation of people in order to use its full capability to enhance Diagram I: Model for inclusive inovation for reslilience and adaptation How? Why? What? Circumstances Capability Employed Community Empowered Capacity Organize Valuable Liveable Resources Economy Resilience + Adaptation Ecology Utilize Durable Sustainable Innovation Investment Feasible Technology Radical Impact Implement 4
opportunities and employ people and create a more valuable and equitable local economy? How can the resilience of a waterfront community be improved by investment in technological innovations, just as well as economic and development innovations, that are feasible and add to a more durable and equitable local economy? The model may also lead to hypotheses and more scientific or fundamental research questions and recommendations for public policy, as well as more specific questions by actually relating it to a certain community empowerment initiative, a specific technology investment or a way of utilizing the ecological resources available. VII. BUILD ON BROOKLYN-ROTTERDAM WATERFRONT EXCHANGE AND LINK TO CONNECTING DELTA CITIES NETWORK The recent floods following Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and the intense involvement of the Dutch in rebuilding, make this transatlantic alliance a logical starting point for a wider exchange of knowledge and practice. Over the last four years Rotterdam and New York have collaborated in the Brooklyn- Rotterdam Waterfront Exchange (BRWX) program supported by the City of Rotterdam, the Empire State Development Corporation, the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. The current collaboration between RDM Campus - Rotterdam University, the Pratt Institute and Columbia University is a direct result of this program. Next, C40 cities Rotterdam and New York collaborate on a government level in the Connecting Delta Cities (CDC) network aiming to exchange knowledge on climate adaptation and share best practices that can support cities in developing their adaptation strategies. Rotterdam hosts a small CDC-secretariat. Other cities involved are Tokyo, Jakarta, Hong Kong, New Orleans, London, Ho Chi Minh City, and Melbourne. Both the cities of Rotterdam and New York are also involved in The 100 Resilient Cities Challenge fostered by the Rockefeller Foundation. We aim to build upon and strengthen these networks by adding the knowledge and implementation power of local communities and applied research to that of governments, business and NGO s. 5
New York s Rebuild by Design (RBD) offered already an innovative and comprehensive approach in which collaboration of different stakeholders was successfully organized in project partnerships. However, the challenge of implementation of the RBD plans is huge in terms of commissioning practice, regulatory impediments and the development of feasible business and investment cases. RBD highlighted the need to fill in an institutional gap which works across scales and sectors to give voice to communities as they develop their own capacities which are both top-down and bottom-up. (Diagram II) Through our cooperation with local partners NGO s, CBO s and citizens groups and private sector we enrich the CDC network, 100 Resilient Cities and, for example, the implementation of ongoing projects with lessons from the ground and validated applied knowledge on the one hand site. Joint research with scientific partners will provide new insights and applied scientific knowledge to the network. In this way we aim to involve all essential parties of the penta-helix to foster innovation: governments, industry, knowledge institutions, NGO s and local communities. VIII. WHAT WE DO? Diagram II: Buidling on the Connecting Delta Cities Network NGO S NGO S Citizens University Citizens + CBOs University PROJECT PARTNERSHIPS PROJECT PARTNERSHIPS Business Government Business Government 6
The International Network for Resilient Waterfront Communities brings together knowledge and practice by focusing on local projects and applying a comprehensive approach, organizing feedback loops by on line and on site knowledge exchange. In the next 4 years we aim to help local resiliency projects and to educate future resiliency leaders by: organizing expert teams for advice on local issues organizing study trips for local resiliency teams organizing onsite course for practitioners (leading up to a yearly summer school) We start the onsite exchange of practitioners, students and academics between Rotterdam and New York, together with various university and professional participants from Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Manila and Jakarta. In time, we aim to involve waterfront communities in other Delta Cities starting with CDC-partners. As such, the community of practice will grow stimulated by the development of an online site where knowledge and best practices will be shared. Initial content will be provided by our partners in Rotterdam and New York. After 4 years we aim to have a least 10-15 waterfront communities from different cities and countries actively involved in the community of practice. organizing onsite student exchange developing an online site providing open access to knowledge and best practices developing online educational modules publishing lessons learned in blogs, project databases, papers and articles. 7
INITIAL PROJECTS TARGETED: Implementation and adaptation of the RDM-model in Brooklyn Development of Rijnhaven Rotterdam Aqua Dock Rotterdam Low cost floating housing Manila Integrated urban water management Jakarta - Rotterdam TARGETED ACTORS: (local) Governments and decision makers Local communities and CBO s Private sector Students and emerging urban professionals Academic and professional faculty Technology start-ups and investors CONTACT: For more information about the International Network for Resilient Waterfront Communities visit our website at: www.rdmcampus.nl/rwc, send an email to: rwc@rdmcampus.nl, or get in touch with one of the founders: Rotterdam University - RDM: Gabrielle Muris // g.m.w.muris@hr.nl Pratt: Ron Shiffman // rshiffma@pratt.edu 8
Cover Design: Paul Chan Layout Design: Skylar Bisom-Rapp 9
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