AbstractsGeography &GIS

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face during this century; heatwaves, periods of extreme drought, and heavy rainfall get more common. Increasing temperatures have massive impact on cities. High amounts of paved- and built-up surfaces store heat during the day, making cities warmer than their rural environment. In order to keep our living environments healthy and save; many cities all over the world are developing climate adaptation strategies. In this scope The Hague is falling behind; the city lacks policy to effectively adapt to the changing climate conditions. This is alarming since The Hague suffers from a severe heat island. In order to effectively mitigate heat in The Hague; this thesis develops an integrated approach towards climate adaptation. Therefore spatial policies get assessed on their climate goals and combined with necessary measures to mitigate heat. The integrated strategy is developed by performing three strategy design studies on The Hague. The proposed actions are in accordance to the city’s spatial ambitions and focus on the city’s green structure, spatial planning and demographic trends especially of the elderly. The synthesis of these three studies results in an integrated strategy, The Hague 2040+, that offers the municipality a set of key-actions the city can execute under existing policy to effectively mitigate urban heat. Advisors/Committee Members: Wandl, A., Van der Hoeven, F..