As mentioned, contemporary urbanization is riddled with uncertainty, especially with what is currently going on with regard to climate change, migration and economic crises. That is, planners have a very significant role in the process of either creating sustainable and pristine urban spaces or contributing to the creation of urban spaces that are vulnerable and prone to social, political, economic or ecological complexities.
There is uncertainty and doubtfulness on how these constraints will be addressed with planning theories, policies or strategies. H. Ernston et al. (2010) explained that these uncertainties need to be faced with experimentation, learning and innovation. Urban innovation will eventually allow for more exploration and implementation of various innovation strategies to extreme levels.
Following this brief introduction, the next chapters of the paper will present and concisely discuss various urban transition strategies, action plans and programs that have been proposed or even been conducted in different countries all over the world, as each of them tries to address the urban complexities and also cope with the rapid pace at which the world is evolving. Urban planners have come up with transition proposals and concepts that they hope will be able to respond to the cities’ challenges and ultimately allow the cities to adapt and transition to more robust urban areas.
The transition strategies presented herewith have been presented, written and discussed as part of an introductory course on urban planning in the master’s program International Cooperation in Urban Planning at the Université Grenoble Alpes (IUGA). The main objective was to build on the diversity of students’ personal experiences and knowledge of international planning practices. The different chapters, therefore, are sorted into the following groups:
1 (i) strategic planning and resilience transition: Rotterdam Resilience Strategy, Rotterdam (Chapter 1); Sustainable Florianópolis Action Plan, Santa Catarina (Chapter 2); “Recife 500 Anos” Plan, Recife (Chapter 3);
2 (ii) green transitions: Greenest City 2020, Vancouver (Chapter 4); The Grandeur Nature Plan, Eurométropole of Strasbourg (Chapter 5);
3 (iii) mobility transitions: The Car-free Livability Programme, Oslo (Chapter 6); A Carbon-free City, Uppsala (Chapter 7); The Bicycle Strategy 2011–2025, Copenhagen (Chapter 8);
4 (iv) digital transitions: Smart and Digital City Action Plan, Montreal (Chapter 9); A Smart City Masterplan, Kigali (Chapter 10); The Array of Things, Chicago (Chapter 11); 22@Barcelona Project, Barcelona (Chapter 12).
These policies and strategies will eventually allow cities to become more efficient “systems”, allowing them to effectively navigate through change, build capacity to withstand shock (such as natural calamities) and use experimentation and innovation ways to face uncertainty, hence adaptive, resilient and robust cities and urban spaces.
Introduction written by Nicolas DOUAY and Michael MINJA.
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Rotterdam Resilience Strategy, Rotterdam
1.1. Introduction
Rotterdam is facing several challenges including climate change and notable urbanization and digitalization, which have not only brought new opportunities but also brought new risks. Since 80% of its urban area is below sea level, water management has always been vital on the resilience agenda in Rotterdam. With the intensification of urbanization processes, permeable areas to manage stormwater drainage are diminishing. At the same time, climate change only adds to the problem, raising the probability of storms and floods and thus forcing the city to rapidly adapt into more resilient actions and strategies.
On May 2016, the city of Rotterdam launched its very first resilience strategy to make the city resilient and ready for the challenges of the 21st century. To reproduce the current framework where Rotterdam is towards resilience, this chapter will briefly look into the 2016 resilient strategy and also have a brief glimpse on the history of the evolution of the urban policies on sustainable adaptations in Rotterdam.
1.2. Context and background
Table 1.1. Introductive summary table of Rotterdam Resilience Strategy
| Area (km2) | 325.79 |
| Population (Rotterdam municipality) | 644,688 |
| Population density (per km2) | 3,043 |
| Urban planning strategy | Rotterdam Resilience Strategy: Ready for the 21st Century |
| Project scale | Entire city (325.79 km2) |
| Strategy type | Social cohesion and education, Energy, Climate adaptation, Cyber, Vital infrastructure, Governance |
| Strategy origin | – The Instrument of Water Assessment (2000)– Climate Change Plan (2008)– National Spatial Strategy– The Rotterdam Climate Adaptation strategy (2013) |
| Responsible administrative authority | The Municipality of Rotterdam + other stakeholders depend on goals and actions |
The city of Rotterdam is a thriving world port city; it is the second largest Dutch city after the capital Amsterdam and currently has a population of more than 644,688 inhabitants (2020, Statistica website). It is located in the province of South Holland, in a delta region near the North Sea, as Map 1.1 shows. Rotterdam is considered one of the main gateways to overseas trade in Europe and an industrial and technological hub of the Netherlands.
Map 1.1. Location of Rotterdam city
(source: Time map website)
The Netherlands was one of the first countries to commit to the sustainability transition discourse in its public networks. In 2000, the government developed the instrument of Water Assessment for implementation in all spatial plans and spatial decisions relevant to water, sequentially becoming mandatory for zoning plans and project decisions.
However, this first plan