Effective international knowledge exchange to rehabilitate rivers in urban delta’s: case study Metropolitan Manilla

In coastal and low-lying vulnerable delta cities, such as the Rotterdam Metropolitan region and Metropolitan Manila, there has been an increase in vulnerability of urban flooding and water quality problems. New approaches address the current and future effects of climate change and increase urban quality, reduce vulnerability and increase water quality. New arrangements for international cooperation are set up in order to address these problems in the project ‘IWASTO’ (‘to correct and to prevent’) where several organisations from the Philippines and The Netherlands join forces to rehabilitate rivers and introduce new innovations for water quality monitoring and waste collection using the ‘Research Design and Manufacaturing (RDM)’ approach. One of the concrete results from this RDM approach in 2016 is the development and implementation of the ‘Longganisa’, a waste collection tool that was designed by a Dutch-Philippine team. In addition, the waterquality was measured and mapped with innovating methods using apps in order to locate and prioritize highly polluted areas. In the near future measures will be implemented to rehabilitate the rivers in Manila and a knowledge exchange forum will be set up to share the best management practices on international scale in countries as Indonesia, India and China

Research results City ClimateScan Rotterdam

This research involves the development of the City Scan methodology to measure, map, scan and assess different parameters that together give insight in the vulnerability of urban areas and neighborhoods. Cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable for climate change and there is an urgent need to become more resilient. The research involved the development of a set of measurement tools that can be applied in different urban neighborhoods in a lowcost low-tech approach with teams of stakeholders and practitioners. The city scan method was tested in different cities around the globe in groups of young professionals and stakeholders in rapid urban appraisals

Performance of Sumur Gendong (SeDrainPond) Technology on Harvesting Water and Sediment with Respect to Effective Rainy Days

Land degradation and climate change are reducing soil fertility and water availability in agricultural areas. So, agricultural production is reduced, which is detrimental to food security and farmers’ livelihoods. These problems must be mitigated together with farmers. The farmers-based technology called Sumur Gendong (SeDrainPond) technology has been used and its performance has been analysed, in order to give farmers a basis to determine farming strategy. The performance of Sumur Gendong in harvesting water and sediments in relation to effective rainy days has been studied for this paper. The fertility of the harvested sediment has been also analysed, and a suggestion has been proposed to improve it. The study has been carried out using a combination of field measurements and laboratory analyses on 10 (ten) test ponds with average diameter 1 m and depth between 2 and 2.5 m on 5 hectares of paddies. The volume of water harvested from the pond annually has been 567 m3 and the one of harvested sediment has been 344 kg. The fertility of the harvested sediment has been moderate across the study area, on the basis of the combined soil chemical propertie

The Social Aspects in Water Management of Semarang’s Drainage System (Case Study of Banger Polder and Water Board BPP Sima)

The climate is changing, rainfall will increase, the sea level is rising and the river dischargeswill change more. Delta areas are faced with the increasing risk of flooding. A traditional solutionagainst flooding is the Dutch polder system. These polder areas in the Netherlands are for many yearsmanaged and maintained by water boards. The Dutch water board model has not been used much inother countries. At this moment it is not known what the social aspects of water management are,which are important in the implementation of a polder system and institute in another cultural contextoutside the Netherlands. For this research, the Banger Polder pilot Project in Semarang is used as acase study, where a polder is constructed and the first public organization for water management inIndonesia has been established. The new water board named BPP SIMA, is similar to the Dutch waterboard model and is responsible for creating and maintain of dry feet in the area. The water boardshould work with the stakeholders to know what the important aspects of the social side in watermanagement are.This research looked at the available knowledge by the selected stakeholders, the acceptance ofthe water fee and the main interest of the selected stakeholders in the Banger polder . The method thatis developed in this research gives insights of the social aspects in water management. The focus ofthis research is on the social dimension of water management. The developed method is the existingthree layer model of water governance in combination with a 360 degrees evaluation. The three layermodel is a method to analyze the risks and opportunities within the water management. The three layermodel consist of three layers, content layer, institutional layer and relational layer. This requiresdifferent information which are collected by existing literature, field visits, discussions, surveys andinterviews.In the survey results appears that not all local stakeholders are familiar with the project and BPPSIMA. This is because the communication with the existing hierarchical structure between RW/RTand inhabitants about the knowledge transfer of the project is lacking. According to existing literaturein this research, it is important that inhabitants feel involved and feel ownership of the project toincrease the acceptance of the water fee. They are the most important stakeholders and must feelinvolved with the water management. Inhabitants need knowledge about water problems to accept thepolicy and measures are implemented more efficient.Keywords: social aspects, water managemen

Research results of a new governance method in climate adaptation:the international City Climate Scan

Cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and there is an urgent need to become more resilient. This research involves the development of the City Climate Scan methodology to measure, map, scan and assess different parameters that provide insight into the vulnerability of urban areas and neighborhoods. The research involved the development of a set of measurement tools that can be applied in different urban neighborhoods in a low-cost low-tech approach with teams of stakeholders and practitioners. The City Climate Scan method was tested in different cities around the globe with groups of young professionals and stakeholders in rapid urban appraisals. For the Rotterdam City Climate Scan (September 2017), the following challenges were selected: risk of flooding, heat stress, water quality (micro-pollutants and plastic waste) and air quality. The Rotterdam climate scan is evaluated with their triple helix partners (public, private and academic partners). The conclusion is that the City Climate Scan approach helps policy makers and practitioners to gather valuable data for decision makers in a rapid appraisal at the neighborhood and city level. The results of the City Climate Scan method provides insights, creates awareness and brings together stakeholders. The most valuable deliverable is the concrete and tangible results. The participatory approach brings residents and practitioners together and provides insight into local problems, while at the same time the method facilitates the collection of valuable data about the robustness of neighborhoods. As a result of this positive evaluation, the City Climate Scan will be up scaled to a number of cities in Europe and Asia in the upcoming months