Utrecht University: Minister receives report on climate adaptation of residential areas in Utrecht region

The study involved 25 law students, a PhD student, university lecturers and professors from the faculties Law, Economics, Governance & Organisation and Geosciences. With this study and report the Utrecht Region aims to prepare the next generation of planners, lawyers and leaders for major social challenges such as climate adaptation.

Practice and science learn from each other
The assignment to Utrecht University focused explicitly on the implementation of climate adaptation. This is innovative from both a scientific and a practical point of view, as most attention in the literature and practice is still focused on the policy phase. For this study we also worked together with engineering consultancy Sweco.

Researcher Heleen Mees, associate professor of Environmental Governance, about this approach: “It is extremely important that science meets the questions from practice, and that practice uses scientific knowledge to achieve better implementation. Researchers can investigate what is happening in the Netherlands and abroad, to learn from it and to translate it into concrete action perspectives, such as the 10 recommendations we have distilled from this study.”


Afbeelding klimaatbestendige woonwijken
The researchers involved are Dr Herman Kasper Gilissen LLM and Prof. Marleen van Rijswick (faculty Law, Economics and Governance) and Dr ir. Dries Hegger, Dr Heleen Mees and Mandy van den Ende MSc (faculty of Geosciences).

More information can be found in the Dutch newsitem. The report is also available in Dutch.