Due to climate change, urban heat stress is becoming an increasing problem, affecting mostly vulnerable populations. Tenants of social housing are particularly vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat, due to inadequate social housing conditions and limited financial resources for cooling interventions. However, due to limited financial resources, housing corporations struggle to implement heat stress mitigation measures into their existing building stock. Therefore, this thesis examines how heat stress mitigation measures for the existing social housing stock can be both socially and financially viable. The formulated research question of this thesis is: What are the long-term costs and benefits of mitigating heat stress in the existing social housing stock?
To answer this research question, a mixed method approach was adopted, in which the first part of the research encompassed a literature review, followed by an empirical case study on Rotterdam. The findings of the research reveal that if indoor heat stress in social housing remains unaddressed, it poses significant risks to the health, energy and financial sectors. Health impacts, such as heat-related mortality and hospitalizations, emerged as the most severe impact, both in human and economic terms. The climate risk assessment indicated that under the high climate scenario, the risk of heat stress in Rotterdam rises significantly. Furthermore, the areas identified as most vulnerable to heat stress socially and (bio)physically are Delfshaven, the Oude Noorden, and the upper south of Rotterdam. In terms of mitigation strategies, the research concluded that passive measures such as shading and natural ventilation are the most effective way to reduce indoor heat stress. Lastly, the societal cost-benefit analysis demonstrated that, under both low and high climate scenarios, the benefits of mitigation outweigh the implementation costs. However, these benefits are unevenly distributed. While housing corporations bear the costs, the benefits accrue to the health, energy, and financial sector. This creates a split incentive that challenges implementation. In conclusion, reducing heat stress in social housing is both societally and economically beneficial. However, while the societal advantages are evident, practical feasibility requires stronger financial support.

Ensuring inclusive urban development requires a deep understanding of how participatory processes are shaped by the perspectives of practitioners, residents, and policy frameworks. While environmental sustainability remains a key aspect of urban resilience, this research focuses on the often-overlooked social dimension, particularly how participation is conceptualized, facilitated, and experienced across different stakeholder groups.
This research examines how participatory approaches can be designed and implemented to support inclusive and sustainable development. It emphasizes the importance of aligning participatory practices with the scale of a project, the characteristics of local communities, and the intended goals of the intervention. Rather than focusing on environmental interventions, this study examines how institutional goals, practical challenges, and community dynamics influence participation itself.
Using a multiple-case study approach, this research compares how municipalities and other stakeholders perceive and apply participatory approaches in various urban contexts. It examines three key aspects: SQ.1 How do municipalities and practitioners view participation in urban development? SQ.2 What are the common barriers and methods regarding public participation in practice in the case-studied areas? SQ.3 What can be learned from the case study areas for a set of guidelines for a durable and inclusive participatory approach selection and implementation?
Through qualitative interviews with both experts and residents, this study offers a comparative analysis of how participation is framed in policy, how it is implemented by practitioners, and how communities experience it. The findings aim to support municipalities and other actors in designing participatory processes that are not only inclusive but also responsive to real-world challenges and community needs. This contributes to more equitable and socially sustainable urban development.

In the last years, municipalities' role in protecting cities from climate change impacts has increasingly gained attention due to their proximity to the citizens. Although municipalities have the tools to implement mitigation and adaptation strategies, anchoring these strategies will demand multiple interventions in the urban sphere if municipalities execute all these projects through a siloed approach. Multi-interventions will increase energy consumption, generating more C02 emissions, as well as more mobility disruptions. Therefore, municipalities need to design and execute their projects integrally. Through a literature review and Rotterdam Municipality serving as a case study, this research explores both the theoretical and practicality of how municipalities can effectively apply an integrated infrastructure design approach (IIDA) to enhance climate-resilient infrastructures (CRI). The research found some of CRI's key characteristics and seven implementation lenses of IIDA at the municipal level: functional, transdisciplinary, synergistic, intervention scale, technological, time and finance.
Furthermore, a thematic analysis of 22 interviews revealed 19 key factors that influence a municipality's effectiveness in using an integrated design approach. These factors were grouped into six dimensions: human capacity, organisational culture, governance, information and knowledge, project process development, and finance. These findings have been translated into a strategic roadmap, providing practical guidance for municipalities to effectively implement IIDA.
The roadmap suggests municipalities need individuals with soft skills such as holistic vision, proactivity, and collaboration. Additionally, fostering an innovative and collaborative culture is essential to enable the development of pilot projects. From the knowledge generated from pilot projects, municipalities can update their standards process.

Infrastructure and urban development projects continue to experience problems and tensions when it comes to external stakeholders, even though the importance of collaboration and dialogue between the external stakeholders and project developers is being increasingly stressed. There seems to be a lack of supporting policy and management strategies for better involvement of the public in public projects and confusion and uncertainty from the project developers’ side on how to engage with them in a more constructive way.

This research looks into how the public’s voice can be more adequately incorporated in public projects in the front-end, where the course the project will follow is set, and its values and relationships with stakeholders defined, in order to improve the collaboration between public governing bodies and their citizens. It does so by analysing an example of public projects with unsuccessful public participation that resulted in conflict: the Museumpark case, where the municipality of Rotterdam decided to make changes to the previous large asphalted square in-between Rotterdam’s most known museums by following standard greening designs. The issue was that this square was one of the most popular skating spots in the city with a growing community. Different disciplines that fall under the skating umbrella could be seen in the square, the main ones being skateboarding, longboarding and rollerskating. Besides these, other urban sports and styles were part of the scene, such as freestyle dancers, hoola-hoopers, and so on. Unbeknownst to the community, the redevelopment plans were progressing, and they only found out about the changes that would happen when the decision was finalised. Because the decision-making was done without consulting the skaters, this led to resistance from them, council debates, a delayed project, and growing distrust about the municipality from the community.

The aim of this research is to to understand current issues commonly faced in projects in the public sector in management, communication and stakeholder participation design, and to highlight strategies to improve public engagement in public projects.

The result of the research is a conceptual framework with strategies derived from the prevailing issues found in literature and what went wrong in practice (as seen in the empirical case). Novel participation methods and alternative approaches for external stakeholder engagement in culturally sensitive projects are needed more in practice in order to reduce the risk of problems occurring in projects or resistance. By testing these strategies in practice, a push is made towards a more inclusive participation, better communication between project developers and the public or the governmental body and the public, more inclusion of social values in projects, higher transparency and authenticity, and implementation of innovative ideas that come from the public’s knowledge.

Cities worldwide are facing increasing impacts from climate hazards such as heavy precipitation, heat stress, flooding, and drought, exacerbated by climate change. This study focuses on unembanked areas (NL: buitendijkse gebieden), vulnerable to flooding due to factors like sea-level rise, river peak discharges, and land subsidence. However, there are many plans for (re)development in Dutch unembanked areas for the coming years. To address these challenges and avoid passing on consequences of what we build now to future generations, effective adaptation measures are crucial. The study investigates the decision-making process for local flood risk measures in unembanked areas, examining appropriate evaluation methods and stakeholders' needs. Qualitative research methods, including expert interactions, a literature review, case studies, and interviews, were employed. Although there are not evaluation methods, the Dutch multi-level safety approach and resilience-based planning methods like adaptative pathway and adaptative tipping point were found applicable to guide the decision-making process in unembanked area development.
For evaluation methods, multi-criteria analysis (MCA) emerged as a suitable tool for decision-making in unembanked area development, considering social values and intangible criteria. Combining MCA with cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) or a form of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) proved effective in balancing quantitative and qualitative criteria, facilitating inclusive decision-making. The research emphasizes the extensive involvement of various stakeholders and identifies barriers related to legal aspects, risk awareness, and communication. Stakeholders call for well-defined guidelines, legal regulations, and collaboration between private and public entities. The study recommends establishing principles for unembanked area development and translating them into MCA criteria, addressing both social values and local characteristics. Further research is suggested to address legal assurance for climate-adaptive construction, increase awareness, enhance flood risk assessment methods and communication, and strengthen collaboration between private and public stakeholders in flood risk management and spatial planning.