Real estate and climate change

Extreme weather, sea-level rise and other effects of climate change increasingly effect the build environment in the Netherlands. Especially in the low-lying and densely populated areas in the west of the country, quality and value of the build environment are under pressure. RED & BLUE is a multidisciplinary knowledge network where different stakeholders learn to ‘speak each other’s languages’, research is conducted and, subsequently, solutions and integral strategies are found.

RED & BLUE stands for Real Estate Development & Building in Low Urban Areas and consists of a broad consortium including universities, knowledge institutes, different levels of government, real estate developers, banks, financial institutions and engineering companies. The program started of in 2022 and will continue for five years. To create as much traction as possible, there are three levels of involvement around the program.

— The first level consists of the core group. These are the consortia members and research partners. They conduct the research and form the actual program.

— The second level is the expert audience and consists of relevant organisations and participants of relevant case studies. They are kept closely up to date on all developments and are often involved in specific parts of research. In this way mutual knowledge exchange is possible and research outcomes can be easily conveyed to practice.

— The third layer consists of the users. These are interested parties, policymakers, broader institutions and the broader public.

Vereniging Deltametropool is part of the core group and, among others, our tasks will be to connect the different studies with each other, form the link between the different levels and to ‘translate’ and communicate the outcomes to the broader public. During the process we will collaborate with other organisations such as the Stichting Kennis Gebiedsontwikkeling (SKG).

The program itself consists of seven workpackages that focus on a specific field of research or part of the program.

• WP1 Real estate climate risk management
  This research direction is about how climate risk management systems can be integrated within the Dutch real estate finance system. Two paths of analysis are followed in this context. First research will be conducted to how climate risks influence real estate values. Secondly, stakeholder driven research will be conducted to increase understanding on how climate mitigating measures to secure financial assets influence urban socio-spatial systems and vice versa. Key challenges and opportunities for innovation and best practices on innovative strategies regarding this topic will be identified.

• WP2 Governance agreements
  This line of research is about integrating knowledge on law, planning and policy making to better understand how investments in infrastructure and real estate can improve societal climate resilience.

• WP3 Physical climate risk & resilience analysis
  This research direction is about researching the relation between physical climate risks and socio-spatial vulnerability by identifying a combination of new methodologies, maps and resilience metrics.

• WP4 Technical climate risk management strategies
  This work package aims to develop a tool to determine the optimal balance between private and public technical risk mitigation measures in the context of climate risk management and spatial planning.

• WP5 Integrative forum
  This work package is about connecting the activities of the consortium both internally and externally through an integrative forum. This forum will facilitate mutual knowledge exchange and create a dialogue between researchers and partners.

• WP6 Urban use cases
  In this work package, case studies and partners will be identified to create real life opportunities to test research outcomes of the aforementioned work packages.

• WP7 Knowledge utilisation
  The seventh and last work package focusses on integrating the outcomes of the conducted research into practical debates and policy and to spread the outcomes among broader stakeholders. Besides academic publications, the networks of three consortium partners will be used to do this. These partners are Vereniging Deltametropool, SKG and the global Urban Land Institute.

Vereniging Deltametropool looks forward to continue our collaboration with the other consortium members and external partners and aims to make a positive and valuable impact in society.