Connecting Sustainable Cities

About 50% of the world’s population currently lives in cities, which are often located in vulnerable deltas. The United Nations predicts that in 2050, about 70% of the (rapidly growing) world population will live in urban areas, with challenges in areas such as water security, congestion, spatial coherence, and governance. Although the nature and background of the problems can differ, the challenges are similar. The continuing computerisation, globalisation and increasing importance of knowledge will lead to a further concentration of economic activities at a limited number of urban locations, in so-called global cities. The rest of the world will, figuratively speaking, increasingly become a desert. Everybody would rather live, work, reside and function in these urban locations, or environments from which these locations are reachable. Consequently increasing differences will also develop within regions and countries, and some cities will fall out of favour. A small leading group and a large main group of cities that are similar to each other and copy each other will develop. This will pose policy and knowledge questions for all of the cities concerned. For the global cities, the way ahead seems to be obvious, yet what are the chances and possibilities for the less fortunate cities?

In the Netherlands, the lowest situated areas of the Rhine and Maas deltas provide space for the majority of inhabitants and the hub of the economy. Liveability, commerce, mobility, security and biodiversity shall also compete in the Netherlands, and especially in the Randstad region, for space that will become increasingly scarce. And changes will occur at an ever increasing pace. Accordingly, a more powerful spatial planning policy will have to be effected in the coming years and higher requirements will be set for the frameworks to assess integral considerations. Spatial planning policy will also have to give greater consideration to the temporary nature of spatial use. Whereas previously space was allocated and used for a century, in the future that will sometimes be for a few decades at most. That has major consequences for the development of an area and for the infrastructural investments.

In a number of sectors (water and mobility) the Netherlands has a leading expert position on urban deltas. With the partners in this new theme, NWO aims to take a next step by bringing the knowledge developed together, filling in the gaps and applying all of this in integral area development, and by looking for connections between problems at different scales.