Soaking up the realisation of a sponge city

Practices and experiences for engaging private property owners to implement climate adaptive measures.

Climate-adaptive measures need to be taken throughout the urban fabric to mitigate the physical stresses that accompany climate change. As private property makes up a significant part of the urban fabric, it is of great importance that adaptations are also applied here. This thesis explores how property owners can best be recruited to the practice of implementing climate adaptive measures. This was done through semi-structured interviews, over the course of one year, by exploring the motives of property owners and the experiences of experts within the municipal district of Watergraafsmeer in Amsterdam. Interviews were conducted via an eclectic approach based on various behavioural science models, of which the multi-level perspective and social practice theory were leading. By linking findings to governance strategies, policy recommendations were defined. Recommendations include: 1. implementation and enforcement of rules related to rainwater management, 2. provision of services and information that activate property owners to act, and 3. implementation of a system within government organisations, of which the preservation of knowledge is resilient to changes in personnel.