Water as a connector: A coherency between waterfront redevelopment and urban revitalization

Cities in the Netherlands have mostly traditionally developedthemselves around water: often near rivers or sea, sometimesalso at its intersection. Rotterdam, with one of the largest portcity in the Netherlands, is an example. Rotterdam is a dynamicworld port and has a century-long tradition of living with water. Thetradition of protecting “against and living with water” contributed tothe development of the city. The strategic location of Rotterdam inthe Dutch delta brought us prosperity and growth. The city grewwith their port activities. After the 20th century, the movement ofthe port towards the sea where the Maastvlakte aroused has leftformer post-industrial areas abandoned. This change in space andfunction has accelerated into new opportunities for Rotterdam asa city port. Rotterdam can continuously adapt to new conditionsresponding to economic and social changes. Thanks to its positionin the delta, Rotterdam has a strong international orientation andhas a large number of potential financial clusters. Because of thiseconomy, the population number has grown in Rotterdam.Rotterdam as a delta can also face the threat of river floods andstorm surges from the seas and heavy rainfall. The City cope with alot of heavy rain that can affect our health and environment. Due toa changing climate and changing insights concerning sustainablerelations between cities and water-landscapes, new interventionswill be needed to create a new urban delta-landscape. In additionto safety and better water-systems, in urban delta’s there is aneed for stronger spatial identities and new cohesion of cities andtheir water-landscapes (delta intervention objectives). There is arequirement for Rotterdam to transform into a climate adaptive city toprotect itself from floods and water damages. It is a favorite situationto live in or along water environment. Therefore, development of thewater-related climate offers excellent opportunities in Rotterdam.This challenge Rotterdam in a correct way of land use planningwhere public and private stakeholders are involved.New interventions that are needed to create a new urban deltalandscapeare mostly planned as an individual tool that lacks incoherency of urban planning strategies in general. Van Veelen(2016) mentioned that there is a lack of research that focuses onactual processes of urban development, management, and changeas an essential precondition for a successful implementation ofclimate adaptation strategies. There can be an integrated approachof climate adaptation in waterfront development and urban renewal.Incorporating adaptation into regular urban development processescan be explained as part of a political process to redistributeresponsibilities to lower levels of authority (e.g., city level) andenlarge the role of the private sector (van Veelen, 2016). This partof the research indicate the problems of climate change, waterfrontredevelopment and declining neighborhood resulting in a problemstatement and a hypothesis for an enhanced integrated approachin the development of common interest between private and publicstakeholders.