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Good practice Imported

Connecting Delta Cities — Rotterdam's Climate-Adaptation Knowledge Transfer to Ho Chi Minh City

Netherlands · Rotterdam · See the Netherlands profile · See the Rotterdam profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 63% 62/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Rotterdam's Connecting Delta Cities network paired Dutch flood-adaptation expertise with Ho Chi Minh City's government from 2011, producing a joint climate-risk atlas and long-term adaptation strategy; the two cities have since renewed their cooperation agreement.

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
City of Rotterdam / Rotterdam Climate Initiative, via the C40 Connecting Delta Cities Network
Period
2011–present
Region (NUTS)
NL33
Keywords
climate adaptation, water management, urban planning knowledge exchange

Context

Rotterdam, much of which sits below sea level, established the Connecting Delta Cities knowledge network — now hosted under the C40 Cities network — to share flood- and climate-adaptation expertise with other low-lying delta cities, including London, Tokyo, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City.

Activities

Starting in 2011, Rotterdam worked with Ho Chi Minh City's government and the Dutch-led Vietnam Climate Adaptation Partnership (VCAPS) to build a shared climate-risk data atlas and a long-term adaptation strategy organised around six strategic directions, formally handed over to city authorities.

Results

The two cities later signed a new memorandum of understanding to continue the collaboration.

Conclusions

C40, the Dutch water-sector press and a Wageningen University case study document the knowledge-transfer process and its outputs — an adopted strategy document and a renewed cooperation agreement — but publicly available reporting does not yet show independently measured reductions in flood risk or demonstrated resilience gains in Ho Chi Minh City that can be attributed to the strategy.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
City of Rotterdam / Rotterdam Climate Initiative technical experts, Dutch-led Vietnam Climate Adaptation Partnership (VCAPS) consortium, Ho Chi Minh City government counterparts, C40 Cities network (network hosting)

Conditions for success

  • a sustained bilateral relationship formalised through a memorandum of understanding
  • technical expertise transfer (adaptive delta-management methodology) adapted to local context
  • local government buy-in to adopt and act on the resulting strategy document

Common failure modes

  • no independent measurement of reduced flood risk or resilience gains has been published, so real-world impact beyond the strategy document is unverified

Where it fits

Governance type
city-to-city technical cooperation via international network
Scale
bilateral, within a wider multi-city network
Income level
high-income (Rotterdam) partnering with lower-middle-income (Ho Chi Minh City)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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