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By Amy McCready
As climate change accelerates, cities worldwide are grappling with more frequent and destructive floods. For many, the question is how to adapt quickly and effectively. In the Dutch city of Dordrecht, that question has been at the centre of policy for centuries, making it a valuable source of insight for other cities facing similar threats.
Surrounded by rivers and lying largely below sea level, Dordrecht has long been one of the most flood vulnerable cities in the Netherlands. Its geography has made climate adaptation not a recent trend but a longstanding necessity. Today, that legacy is informing international efforts to replicate proven strategies for water and climate resilience in urban areas.
Through the EU-funded Life Critical project, Dordrecht has taken the lead in creating practical tools to help other cities jumpstart their own adaptation efforts. These include a detailed case study of the city’s climate adaptation approach and a guidebook outlining how to replicate similar methods elsewhere.
These tools are now being actively used in cities like Bradford (UK), Ghent (Belgium), and Bergen (Norway), offering them a head start by building on real-world experience rather than starting from scratch.
The Life Critical guides are more than theoretical. They’re being used to test citizen science approaches, integrate climate resilience into local urban design, and foster collaboration across disciplines.
For cities pressed for time and resources, having access to a working model, with documented challenges and successes, can shorten the learning curve dramatically.
One such case study is Wielwijk, a neighbourhood in Dordrecht that has undergone a decades-long transformation focused on co-created climate resilience. Adaptation measures there include a relocated highway, redesigned parks, water-absorbing green spaces, and altered topography to manage runoff.
The neighbourhood has also embraced citizen science and data collection as tools for both better design and stronger public trust.
The goal of the replication work isn’t to copy Dordrecht exactly, but to enable cities to tailor proven ideas to their own context. At the end of the Life Critical project, a comprehensive “replication blueprint” will be released, offering cities across Europe a consolidated set of tools and lessons learned.
In the meantime, cities interested in adopting similar strategies can already access the guidebooks and case studies, and even connect with the project team for support. As flood risks rise and climate events grow more severe, the urgency is clear: there’s no time to waste reinventing what others have already refined.
Dordrecht’s experience is a reminder that climate adaptation is not only possible, it’s practical, scalable, and increasingly essential. By sharing what works and being open about what doesn’t, cities can move faster toward a more resilient future.
- Amy McCready is a Barcelona-based communications professional working at innovation consultancy Bax.
