Vital Cities and Citizens involved in Rotterdam impact study COVID-19

Impact study COVID-19 in the municipality of Rotterdam

The Rotterdam project Impact study COVID-19 aims to determine the impact of the corona crisis on the city based on research (surveys, literature, experts and networks). With the acquired knowledge and insight in facts and figures, the city of Rotterdam can increase its resilience and of its inhabitants.

Moving along with emerging knowledge questions

On 15 April 2020, the Impact Study COVID-19 was launched and the study will initially last 6 to 8 weeks. The project is a co-production between Vital Cities and Citizens and the municipality of Rotterdam, which will be jointly designed, financed and executed. The project moves along with the knowledge questions that gradually arise during the project's implementation.

Participating researchers

From VCC, dr. Jan Fransen (themeleaders within VCC) and prof.dr. Jurian Edelenbos (academic director VCC) are the leaders of this project, and in addition several other researchers cooperate on this project, such as Dr. Naomi van Stapele, Dr. Brian Godor en Dr. Mike Duijn..

Building back stronger

The role of Vital Cities and Citizens within the overall Rotterdam project focuses primarily on gathering the information needed to accelerate the recovery in Rotterdam to emerge stronger from this crisis, according to the "Building Back Stronger" principle. This part within the overall project therefore focuses on (1) accelerating the effective recovery of the city of Rotterdam and (2) the resilience of Rotterdam.

Lessons learned and best practices applicable to Rotterdam

The participating researchers perform an analysis of post-disaster and resilience studies and literature. The focus is on lessons learned and successful best-practices that may be relevant and applicable to the city of Rotterdam in coping with the corona crisis. A repository (worldwide freely accessible database) will be created in which all relevant information and cases will be included in order to be able to systematically draw lessons for the city of Rotterdam. The study consists of three parts:

• General study of literature on resilience;
• A (comparative) case study on (dealing with) disasters;
• Collecting, structuring, comparing and analyzing/interpreting other corona-related information.

Relevant for other cities inside and outside the Netherlands

The results of the study are interesting and applicable to other cities within and outside the Netherlands. There is already a cooperation between Rotterdam and The Hague, specifically between the resilience teams. In addition, there is a close relationship with IHS (Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies), which has a strong international network (of alumni). The project is strongly focused on not only collecting and systematically analyzing international knowledge and cases, but also disseminating them through this (inter)national network.