Flood and heatstress modelling for climate adaptation, results of ‘Stresstest Fryslân’

Urban planners and several stakeholders in public and private sector are in need of (quickscan) tools that can assess the vulnerability to floods and thermal stress. Urban flooding and thermal stress have become key issues for many
cities around the world. With the continuing effects of climate change, these two issues will become more acute and will add to the serious problems already experienced in dense urban areas around the globe.
The present paper presents a large scale ‘stresstest’ that deals with the combination of innovative tools to address these challenges. For the whole province of Fryslân in The Netherlands flood maps and heat stress maps were
developed and used for the comparison analysis. Concrete priority problem locations where located with models and climate adaptive measures were selected in masterclasses in the period of January 2017 to June 2018 in a triple
helix consortium. The scale of this climate adaptation stresstest is considered the biggest and detailed in the world due to the high tech computing and the participation of all stakeholders involved. The masterclasses help stakeholders to follow the 3 step climate adaptation strategy 'analyse, ambition, act' with a
focus on the first step ‘analyse’ that raises awareness and provides insights on the resilience to climate change of a specific area. The first evaluation of the applied tools and project results and by the stakeholders is positive. The
project raised awareness on climate adaptation and delivered a calibrated stresstest for Fryslân with detailed calculations of flood risks and heatstress in the city. Best practices and climate adaptation strategies are created in
masterclasses. Stakeholders have a detailed insight in the vulnerability and resilience of their district and have concrete examples and plans to implement climate adaptation measures in the near future.