NOSOLaf Heinen of the neighborhood initiative in Assendorp, Zwolle
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:01
Dutch residential areas are insufficiently prepared for extreme heat, drought or large amounts of rain, such as at the beginning of this month at Storm Poly. That is what experts and various organizations say.
Scientists say that to make these districts heat-resistant, more greenery must be placed in the public space, such as public gardens and trees. At the same time, this ensures better water collection (and storage) after heavy rain showers. Tiles and wide streets must make way for trees and underground water collection.
The will to tackle gardens, streets and even entire neighborhoods is there. But initiators say they are encountering delays at municipalities. Since 2020, they have agreed to implement projects in a ‘climate-adaptive’ manner, but implementation is slower than planned.
Responsibility and everything at the same time
One of the reasons for this delay is that it is unclear which body is responsible. For example, where water is managed by the municipality, in many municipalities there is no body responsible for tackling heat.
Jeroen Kluck, lecturer at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, conducts research into the heat-resistant city. According to him, things are not going fast enough because a lot has to be done at the same time on a small piece of land.
Energy, water management and heat control must be tackled simultaneously. “Municipalities do make plans, but heat control often falls away in the implementation,” he says in the NOS Radio 1 Journal. According to Kluck, this is also because too little importance is attached to it.
According to Kluck, it doesn’t have to be complicated. This mainly concerns the placement of (large) trees. “Shade is the most important measure against heat.”
Neighborhood initiative in Zwolle
In Zwolle, in the Assendorp district, the collective 50 Shades of Green Assendorp is working on a whole series of climate measures. Assendorp is a petrified neighborhood from the 1930s. The houses are insufficiently insulated and the sewage system in the streets is old and too small to handle large amounts of rain. In addition, there are hardly any trees in the street.
This collective also says it is experiencing delays from the government. According to initiator Olaf Heinen, the municipality tackles each problem individually. There is no integrated plan.
Reason for Olaf Heinen of 50 Shades of Green Assendorp to do something about it:
Greening to cool: ‘such a tree cools away dozens of air conditioners’
Another obstacle is planning. To tackle a neighborhood like Assendorp, companies and clients depend on each other’s agenda, while the initiators want to tackle everything at the same time.
“People are always waiting for a moment when everything can be done at once, such as planting trees if the sewer system needs to be replaced,” says Marian Stuiver, Green Cities program leader at Wageningen University.
According to Stuiver, there is a lack of direction. If it is up to her, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities can take over that direction. “There are plenty of ideas, now the implementation.”
2023-07-17 20:01:56
#Neighborhoods #Netherlands #insufficiently #prepared #extreme #weather
