Thirsty Cities: Towards drought resilient cities

Challenges in Addressing Drought

The Thirsty Cities project explores how cities can cope with increasing drought. Although authorities recognize drought as a risk, few are prepared for it. This is due to four main reasons:

1. There is limited understanding of the urban water balance during drought, making effective water management difficult.
2. There is a lack of knowledge about the vulnerability of water users in cities, such as green spaces, buildings, infrastructure, and households.
3. It is unclear who is responsible for addressing drought.
4. There is a shortage of practical guidelines and tools to make cities drought-resilient.

Methodology

The project addresses these four challenges by collaborating closely with municipalities, water boards, and knowledge institutions. AUAS will help gain insights into the water balance during dry periods (point 1) and develop solutions for drought-resilient cities (point 4). Researchers will conduct practical case studies in the participating municipalities to measure the impact of interventions. The insights from the project will be translated into tools, guidelines, and models for policy and practice, such as urban water balance models, decision support for tree planting, and water distribution scenarios.

Education

Students from AUAS and other participating universities of applied sciences and universities will contribute to the research through internships and graduation projects. The results will also be incorporated into education, for example in the minor Climate-Resilient City and the Built Environment program. This will help train the professionals of tomorrow.

Team

• Jeroen Schoonderbeek (project leader)
• Dante Föllmi (lecturer-researcher)
• Reinder Brolsma (researcher)
• Jeroen Kluck (professor)

Partners and Funding

Thirsty Cities is an NWA research project funded by NWO. Partners include:

• 7 knowledge institutions: Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (lead), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, University of Twente, Leiden University
• 4 water boards and district water boards: De Dommel Water Board, Delfland Water Authority, Schieland and Krimpenerwaard Regional Water Authority, De Stichtse Rijnlanden Regional Water Authority
• 8 municipalities: Rotterdam, Eindhoven, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Enschede, Groningen, Deventer
• Other partners: Deltares, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, STOWA (Foundation for Applied Water Research), RIONED Foundation, Samen Klimaatbestendig and Treeport BCT Partners BV.