As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, urban areas are particularly at risk due to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which amplifies local temperatures. However, the impacts of rising temperatures are not equally distributed: , heat disproportionately affects vulnerable populations In areas where social and spatial inequalities are deeply rooted, often leading to the poorest neighborhoods to be the warmest. While research has explored either the physical or social aspects of heat vulnerability, limited attention has been paid to the interplay between them across scales. This limits the effectiveness of adaptation strategies and risks overlooking the complex, lived realities of those most affected.
This thesis addresses this gap by investigating how a multidimensional understanding of urban heat vulnerability can support more tailored and inclusive adaptation strategies. Using The Hague as a case study, the research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining a literature review, principal component analysis (PCA), field observations, interviews, and policy analysis. The PCA identified four distinct vulnerability typologies and revealed clear spatial patterns linked to socio-economic inequalities. For instance, Schildersbuurt-West emerged as the city’s most heat-vulnerable area. In-depth fieldwork in this neighborhood highlighted residents’ everyday experiences with heat, coping mechanisms, and varying levels of trust in institutions.
Findings show that exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity interact in context-specific ways and cannot be fully understood in isolation. Vulnerability is shaped by intersecting factors such as migration background, housing conditions, income, gender, and social support networks. The typologies derived from the PCA illustrate this complexity, showing that vulnerability takes different forms in different places.
In addition, the analysis of existing adaptation tools revealed a strong focus on physical and municipal-level interventions, often lacking behavioral strategies or bottom-up engagement. To bridge this gap, the thesis introduces Beat the Heat—a multi-scale, user-friendly adaptation toolkit. It offers practical strategies for both municipalities and residents, including preventive and responsive measures at household and neighborhood levels. Interventions can be filtered by stakeholder, target group, and location, and include information on cost and cooling potential.
By combining academic insights with practical tools, this research contributes both theoretically and pragmatically to the field of climate adaptation. It advances a multidimensional approach to understanding and addressing urban heat vulnerability and provides actionable pathways toward more just, effective, and inclusive responses. Beat the Heat helps ensure that adaptation measures align more closely with local needs, capacities, and lived experiences.

The Netherlands, and in particular South–Holland, is to a large extent below sea level, making the region vulnerable to environmental challenges linked to climate change. According to IPCC, a sea-level rise of two to five metres is not excluded, while the Delta committee advised the government recently to not invest in new infrastructure in the west of the Netherlands, due to a high risk of flooding.

This project proposes a vision for the cultural and economic adaptation of the province of South–Holland in a scenario of a three-metre sea-level rise in 2100. Exploring the historical Dutch approach to water management, the project believes that adaptability can be achieved through a cultural shift in that approach. A shift is realised using education and stakeholder strategies from fighting the water to opening the dikes and adapting to it. Through research by design and vice versa, a new delta landscape was shaped, strengthening the existing potential of the area. The potentials lay in environmental, economic, and cultural aspects of the area. The future environment is not only adaptive but also a desirable living environment for humans and non-humans.

The result of this project is a better understanding of how a more circular economy approach can be an adaptation tool to the irremediable consequences of sea-level rise in delta landscapes, using the South Holland region as a case study. By exploring the consequences and further adaptation to this new scenario spatially, this project is an example and a trigger for other delta landscapes to explore the different challenges that they will face, presenting a possible and desirable future.