Aligning densification and climate resilience in post-war neighborhoods: Aiming for a Pareto optimum in the Western Garden Cities of Amsterdam

Abstract

This thesis explores the alignment between two topic policy goals: densifying the city to fulfill the enormous demand for affordable housing and making the city climate-resilient to respond to possible future (climate-related) shocks and stresses. This study pictures both the already implemented governance mechanisms and the governance mechanisms that could improve the alignment of densification and climate resilience goals. With multiple conflicts between the two policy goals being identified, the research shows that the currently implemented governance mechanisms lack the impact to foster the alignment between densification and climate resilience as the climate resilience paradigm is undervalued. To improve the alignment, this thesis suggests creating integral visions that structurally map the climatic strengths and weaknesses of an area before shaping the densification plans.