From the high number of cases, to the many companies and institutions closing down, the pandemic hit hard on Rotterdam. The COVID-19 Rotterdam Impact Study conducted by IHS and VCC aims to research how Rotterdam can effectively recover from the corona crisis and increase its resilience. Four policy letters and five Knowledge and Inspiration briefs were published during this project. You can see them below.
Policy letter #1: Conditions for urban resilience to COVID-19
The central question of this policy letter is:
Which conditions influence how fast Rotterdam will come back stronger out of the Covid-19 pandemic?
Policy letter #2: Research design for case studies
The central question reads: Through which working methods and activities have cities been able to emerge stronger out of the COVID-19 crisis?
The 'Leren en Doorgroeien' team of the city of Rotterdam wants to research a number of cases and systematically compare these to draw lessons and to develop perspectives of action for Rotterdam and its citizens.
Policy letter #3: Conditions for community resilience
A resilient society enables urban residents and businesses to cope with a crisis. In this policy brief, Dr. Jan Fransen (theme leader within VCC) and Daniela Ochoa Peralta MSc give advice on which conditions, such as local knowledge and local networks, contribute to a resilient society.
Policy letter #4 Resilient communities: the role of local government
This policy brief zooms in on the need for a paradigm shift in the way Rotterdam is managed. Infrastructure-led development is not enough, as it cannot deal with social problems such as loneliness, it does not allow for enough flexibility to deal with uncertainty, and it does not unleash innovation and creativity. In this policy paper, dr. Mike Duijn, prof.dr. Jurian Edelenbos, Daniela Ochoa Peralta and dr. Jan Fransen outline an adaptive, bottom-up and resilient alternative.