Red&Blue Lab 04

On 21 April 2023, Audrey Esteban, of Work Package 5 for the Greater Rotterdam Living Lab, organized the fourth Lab of the Red&Blue program in the city of Dordrecht. Besides sharing updates and reflecting on current research efforts in the work packages, the main focus of this lab was on the challenges the city of Dordrecht faces in the context of climate adaptation and real estate development. The morning started off with a series of presentations. The first speaker was Berry Gersonius, Freelance Consultant at ResilienServices and former senior lecturer in Urban Flood Resilience at IHE Delft. Berry provided an overview of the climate adaptation challenges in Dordrecht and highlighted De Staart, an area in the east of the city and the site of residential and business park development. Next, Lisa Lieftink, advisor on climate adaptation at the Dordrecht municipality presented land subsidence problems in Dordrecht, based on insights from an RVO funded study. Johnathan Subendran, researcher at the Resilient Delta Initiative, followed with a presentation on inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge integration. Finally, Dongxiao Niu, postdoctoral Red&Blue researcher at Maastricht University, reflected on risk communication and property values, by discussing a letter sent to residents in Dordrecht and how it affected the property values.

In the afternoon, Berry Gersonius led a walking tour through Dordrecht, passing through embanked and unembanked areas of the city. This was followed by a fun group activity – a Dordrecht themed treasure hunt, which enabled learning about city and the challenges it faces in the context in climate adaptation in a playful and engaging way.