The world’s population is growing fast and the number of people living in cities is increasing rapidly. At the same time, climate change is bringing new challenges for these growing populations: heat stress in cities; diminished water supply for communities, agriculture and industry; irregular rain patterns; extreme weather events; affected coastal areas due to sea level rise; and even pandemics. The need to build resilience to secure liveability, ecological well-being and economic viability for communities in the midst of these new shocks and stressors presents new opportunities for international cooperation. As resilience and water experts work around the world on similar challenges, building partnerships and collaborations can allow us to integrate knowledge, technology and tools to provide solutions adapted to serve local needs.
Cities all over the world are getting more familiar with the challenges and consequences of climate change. In the past, extreme weather events occurred once in a lifetime, but now their frequency and negative impacts have become more common. Doing nothing is not an option. The need to develop resilient cities is imminent.
Forging partnerships
An integrated systems approach is vital to make cities, coastal communities and rural areas resilient. Joining forces across different roles and angles allows us to transition to resilient systems where all parts of society are working towards these common goals. That is why the NWP Urban Resilience team works together with national and international city mayors and administrators, water leaders, investors, global banks, knowledge institutions, businesses, NGOs, networking organisations and community groups to work on resilience in a collaborative way.
Forging long-term relationships, building partnerships and exchanging knowledge can stimulate new solutions and lead to innovation. The NWP Urban Resilience team enables the Dutch water sector to liaise with partners around the world wishing to engage with Dutch expertise in order to learn and act towards building resilient solutions.