Rotterdam: A City and a Mainport on the Edge of a Delta

Abstract

Within Europe, Rotterdam is by far the largest port and supplier of fossil energy sources. City and port have a “sandwich” position in the low lands between a sea with a rising level and rivers with increasing peak discharges. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that sustainability forms a matter of life or death for Rotterdam as a Delta City. The question of a sustainable Rotterdam or not is related to the following issues: (1) water management (preventing hazards; the restoration of the estuary; salinization); (2) urban renewal; (3) the spatial and climate footprint of the ever-growing port and (4) energy transition. Currently all these issues are dealt with largely independently of one another. For a genuinely sustainable future, linkages have to be made between strategies, projects and actors.

Notes

www.rotterdamclimateinitiative.nl (accessed February 2011).

Of the 5.9 million containers transported via the Rotterdam harbour nearly 30% is called sea–sea transport (Port of Rotterdam, 2009).

http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/germans-reject-dutch-purchase-port-duisburg-share (accessed February 2011).

http://www.maasvlakte2.com/nl/index/ (accessed February 2011).

http://www.deltalinqs.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=4 (accessed 8 February 2011).

http://www.rotterdamclimateinitiative.nl/en/about_rotterdam_climate_initiative/rotterdam_climate_initiative/mission_ambition (accessed 7 February 2011).

All figures collected from the website of the Port of Rotterdam.

Biomass is a wider concept than biofuels. Biomass is of particular importance for the Netherlands: according to some (for instance, Hetsen & Hidding, 1991), the large-scale very intensive cattle breeding which forms a major pillar under the Dutch agro-business industry owes its existence mainly to cheap and reliable imports of biofood through the Rotterdam port.

NTA is the Dutch acronym for Dutch technical agreement (see http://www.sustainable-biomass.org; accessed February 2011).

See http://www.keringhuis.nl/engels/home_noflash.html (accessed February 2011).

Especially the programme ‘Knowledge for Climate’, supported by NWO, the Dutch research council (see http://knowledgeforclimate.climateresearchnetherlands.nl; accessed October 2010).