Rotterdam is facing many major challenges now and in the future, such as the climate crisis, increasing social inequality and the Covid-19 pandemic. The municipality presents the 2022-2027 Resilient Rotterdam Strategy, in order to prepare our city for the opportunities and challenges of the future.

Why are we working on the city’s strength and resilience?

A strong and resilient city will quickly recover after a crisis or setback and will subsequently emerge a great deal stronger: a resilient Rotterdam. A good example of such a crisis is the changing climate. As a low-lying city in the Dutch river delta, Rotterdam is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Climate adaptation, in other words, Rotterdam’s adaptation to climate change, is absolutely essential. That’s why Rotterdam was one of the first cities in the world to develop a climate-adaptive approach in 2013 and the first integrated approach to making the city strong and resilient followed a few years later in 2016: the Resilience Strategy.

2022-2027 Resilient Rotterdam Strategy

It’s essential for Rotterdam to continue to work on the city's strength and resilience. That’s why the 2022-2027 Resilient Rotterdam Strategy has been developed. This document builds on the Resilience Strategy which was initially developed in 2016. Six crises have been identified in this renewed strategy, which could all have a significant impact on the city during the forthcoming years. In addition to the climate crisis and the health crisis, these are the decline in biodiversity, the increase in social inequality, the increasing levels of pollution and depletion of raw materials and the increase in cyber threats.

“Spatial, social and economic resilience is needed in order to make and keep Rotterdam resilient on all fronts,” according to Arno Bonte, alderman Sustainability, energy transition, air quality and resilience. “That's why we decided to extend our strategy from its initial focus on climate resilience to economic, social, energy, ecological and digital resilience. Good coherence between these themes will result in a future-oriented city”.

How do we work towards a resilient Rotterdam?

For example, how do we ensure the economy becomes resilient in relation to the accelerated sea level rise? And how do we ensure Rotterdam residents become digitally resilient in an ever-changing digital world? This ambition document is all about these questions. Dozens of actions have been formulated based on this ambition, with which Rotterdam will work on the city’s strength and resilience during the forthcoming years. For example, Rotterdam is increasing Bospolder-Tussendijken residents’ cyber resilience and the city is investigating how challenges like the energy transition, the climate crisis and digitisation can be used to reinforce the city's social strength and resilience together with the universities. This will allow us to meet the challenges of the future!

Ambition

This document serves as an ambition and provides guidance for a subsequent lecture. The next council will decide on the further implementation of the 2022-2027 Resilient Rotterdam Strategy.

Read the English version of the 2022-2027 Resilient Rotterdam Strategy.
Read the Dutch version of the 2022-2027 Resilient Rotterdam Strategy.