Insights from the Speed Talks seminar on Water, Urban Environment, Disasters and Multi-layer Resilience
Wednesday 20 November 2024, the first 4TU.RE Speed Talks event took place, featuring insightful talks from experts like Max de Vries, Mikhail Sirenko, and Supriya Krishnan and hosted by Joanne Vinke-de Kruijf and Tina Comes. The discussions revolved around innovative approaches to living with water, urban resilience, and adaptive urban planning.
Max de Vries shared a compelling history of water management, emphasizing the need for a balanced strategy that goes beyond merely resisting floods. He highlighted the importance of integrating ecological, economic, and social sustainability values through dialogical action research in collaboration with other stakeholders, using a case study from Zwolle.
Mikhail Sirenko introduced fascinating concepts of vulnerability and resilience, using space and time maps to analyze urban activity patterns. His research on human behavior during heatwaves and the surprising findings about nighttime activity peaks in Rotterdam were particularly thought-provoking.
Supriya Krishnan discussed the dynamics of different urban systems in India and the Netherlands and the challenges of short-term decision-making. She advocated for flexible urban planning that allows for the integration of new insights and adapts to changes over time.
The key takeaway from the seminar was the importance of adopting a long-term perspective in urban planning and water management. As Max and Supriya recommended, practitioners in the Netherlands should look beyond the next decade, while Mikhail emphasized the need for collective learning to tackle urban complexity.
This seminar was a great reminder of the critical role of interdisciplinary collaboration and forward-thinking in addressing the challenges of urbanization and climate change.
A heartfelt thank you to all the participants! It was fantastic to see attendees from around the globe, including Azerbaijan, Singapore and the USA, and members of the Resilience Engineering community, come together for this session.
