Multi-Level Climate Effect Modeling, best management practices From private property to national level

The changing climate has an effect on the quality of life in our cities: heavier rainfall (resulting in
floodings), longer periods of drought, reduced air and water quality and increasing temperatures in
cities (heat stress). Awareness about these changes among various stakeholders is of great
importance. Every Dutch region is required to perform a stresstest indicating the effects of climate
change (o.a. flooding and heatstress) before 2020. The level of execution, area size and level of
participation of stakeholders, has intentionally been made flexible.
To provide more insight into the approaches and best management practices to climate resilience,
this article provides 3 examples of stresstests performed on several levels: single object real estate
level, city level and national district level. The method ‘stresstestíng’, involves flood and heatstress
modeling, defines the current status of climate adaptation characteristics of an object, city or district.
The stresstest form the base line and starting point for the national 3 step approach adaptation
strategy ‘analyse, ambition and action’.
The 3 pilots have been evaluated as ‘successful’ by stakeholders and yielded a significant amount of
valuable information, further improvement is recommended as increasing the participation of the
private sector, in a ‘quadruple helix approach’. The learning points from these 3 examples of
stresstests will subsequently be implemented in the form of improved stresstesting in the near
future in (inter)national cities around the world.