AECOM assisted Rotterdam and The Hague in developing resilience strategies on behalf of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities (100RC).

100RC addresses a broad range of challenges: struggling economies, lagging transit systems, crime, food and water shortages, natural disaster, disease and terrorism. The goal of our work was to prepare the cities for future challenges such as climate change, the new economy and digital society.

Resilience in the Netherlands

Our risk management and resilience specialists supported Rotterdam in drafting its strategy with a focus on six areas. These were: social resilience and education; climate change resilience; critical infrastructure; cyber resilience and big city data; changing governance; and energy and port resilience.

Rotterdam successfully launched its strategy — the second and final step in 100RC’s roadmap — in spring 2016.

Following Rotterdam’s success, 100RC appointed AECOM to support The Hague with its resilience strategy. Our experts helped the city organise a workshop exploring  potential challenges, resulting in a preliminary assessment report. According to this, The Hague will most likely encounter sea-level rise, coastal erosion, an increase in refugee population, eroding infrastructure, cyber-crime and terrorism.

Further work for 100RC

As a strategic advisor, thought partner and project manager for the cities participating in 100RC, AECOM helps facilitate diverse stakeholder engagement workshops to better understand perceptions, needs and risks. We carry out technical analyses in key priority areas, help to identify a list of potential actions and assist in developing the final strategy.

AECOM has assisted seven further cities — Berkeley, U.S.A.; Christchurch, New Zealand; Medellín, Colombia; Melbourne, Australia; Mexico City, Mexico; Oakland and San Francisco, U.S.A. — that have already published their resilience strategies. The company is currently working with another 22 cities that have embarked on the process.

Read more about AECOM’s involvement in 100RC here.