European conference looks at the spatial challenge of adapting to climate change

A conference entitled “Adapting to climate change: a spatial challenge?” was held in The Hague in May, organized by Royal Haskoning for the EU ESPACE project (European Spatial Planning: Adapting to Climate Events). The conference’s objective was to identify challenges and solutions for adapting to different climate change issues in Europe, as well as best practices for projects that could be of interest to other European countries.

Royal Haskoning was assigned the task of arranging the project by the Dutch ministries of the Environment (VROM) and Water (Waterdienst V&W). Project manager Marnix de Vriend, who chaired the event, and his team of Petra Dankers, Jessica van den Broek and Peter de Vries met the challenge of arranging this major conference in just six weeks. The initial step was to identify nine interesting topics, with input from their own network and from ESPACE.

The topics were sourced from five different EU countries covering a wide range of aspects related to climate change. From France, there was a presentation on the Marquenterre approach of large scale coastal natural development that served both birds and local economy. Germany shared news of the ELLA project for spatial flood prevention along the river Elbe, while Finland presented the way they implement an adaptation strategy at a national policy level.

From the UK, representatives of the Environment Agency, Baca Architects, CIP and Manchester University had contributions on Thames Estuary 2100, flood-proof housing in London and Dordrecht, methodologies for extensive knowledge transfer and challenges for cities in terms of precipitation and temperature. Spanish delegates shared information about the country’s water shortages and the dilemmas facing politicians in Aragon and Barcelona. Finally, from Holland, the regional spatial integration of adaptation strategies in Groningen and the promising efforts of KLM in bio-fuel research and salt water algae production were interesting case studies.

It is clear that the audience of 50 delegates from 15 countries enjoyed some excellent presentations and discussions. The event had extra input from MoP Jan Boelhouwer and the Bosnian singer Mile Lukic, who both added a special flavour to the day.

Visit the website for more information about the conference or to download the presentations.

Contact: Marnix de Vriend
+31 24 3284176
m.devriend@royalhaskoning.com

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