Making the Most of Disaster Recovery – Interview with Piet Dircke, Global Advisor Climate Adaptation at Arcadis

Making the Most of Disaster Recovery – Interview with Piet Dircke, Global Advisor Climate Adaptation at Arcadis

By Piet Dircke 24 July, 2024

Our adaptation efforts will not stand up to future natural disasters according to Dircke, Global Advisor for Climate Adaptation at Arcadis. Why is this? What should we be doing instead? We chat with Dircke to find out

At Singapore International Water Week 2024 we heard Piet Dircke, Global Advisor for Climate Adaptation at Arcadis, share some interesting cases on cities that had made the most of disaster recovery. We had to find out more so we sat down with him and did just that. In this Interview, Dircke shares more on the mentioned city cases, why our adaptation efforts will not stand up to future natural disasters, why investing in resilience always pays off and his key ingredients on how we can maximize disaster recovery. Arcadis is a leading global company delivering sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets.

CWR: Thank you for sitting down with us, Piet. As a global design and engineering firm Arcadis is involved in projects across the water and climate spectrum and across geographies. What trends are you seeing in adaptation? And are they going to stand up to future natural disasters?

Piet Dircke (PD): We see more and more that extreme events, resulting from climate change, are impacting our cities, citizens, and public and private infrastructure. As a result, more and more investments in climate adaptation, in particular flood and drought resilience are going to be made. In the cities we work, we focus on more space for blue and green measures, as well as nature-based solutions that are better integrated into the dense urban fabric. Good examples of adaptation interventions we’ve worked on are Sponge Cities in China, Room for the River in the Netherlands and East Side Coastal resilience in New York.

Our adaptation efforts will not stand up to future natural disasters…

…we need to be prepared for the unexpected & stop designing infrastructure based on standards from past events

As to whether our adaption efforts will stand up to future natural disasters, the answer is no. We need to learn what true climate resilience means: To be prepared for the unexpected. We now design our climate infrastructure based on standards that were derived from events of the past, alongside assumptions from today. As a result, we prepare ourselves for the previous disaster and not for the next one. It will be a surprise, that’s what makes it a disaster. Resilience means to be robust (structures as well as people!), and with well protected critical infrastructure that we will always need, no matter what the disaster will look like: safe and accessible hospitals, undisrupted electricity, clean and safe water supply, public transport, communications and sanitation.

CWR: And what about what you’re not seeing, where are the gaps? What’s missing from the adaptation agenda? As I mentioned previously, our agenda is still focused on protection and risk management, not on a more holistic concept for resilience. So for example in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, and even in the Netherlands in the 2021 summer floods, hospitals flooded, we had power failures, elderly homes and nurseries had to be evacuated and public transportation was disrupted.

PD: We also continue to invest and build our cities in dangerous low-lying coastal locations, denser and denser, with less space for water and no tolerance for any unexpected event. Cities like Jakarta and Miami are in danger. And endangered cities like Copenhagen, Manila, Singapore, and Hong Kong, instead of considering (partial) retreat or increased resilience, extend even more onto the water, with land reclamation projects often exposing their population to potential new risks in the future, including sea level rise and soil subsidence, and increased storm intentions.

It will require large investments in new projects, but even more so in sustained operation and maintenance over decades to come to mitigate those risks.

CWR: The examples you shared at Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) 2024 of cities that had either made the most of disaster recovery or learnt painful lessons from not making the most were very interesting. Can you share some of them here for those who didn’t attend SIWW 2024?

PD: The most important lesson to learn is that investment in resilience pays off! Even if it takes a while. The Netherlands invested 3 B$ in their Room for the River and Meuse Works projects, which widened the riverbeds, strengthened flood protection, and adjusted land use after the 1991 and 1993 floods. In the summer of 2021, torrential rainfall and giant floods hit Central West Europe, devasting parts of Germany, Belgium, and Southern Netherlands, resulting in numerous casualties and billion-euro damages in nearby Germany and Belgium, but not in the Netherlands. Despite some local flooding and damage, the overall system showed resilience and worked well.

“The most important lesson to learn is that investment in resilience pays off!”…

…look at the Netherland’s Room for the River project & New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina…

In that same summer, the US east coast was hit by hurricane Ida, challenging New Orleans with a Hurricane 4 strength comparable to Katrina, which destroyed the city in 2005. The difference was that by 2021, New Orleans benefited from 14.5 B$ investments in a coherent protection system of flood walls, storm surge barriers, dikes and pumps. This was built at warp speed between 2007 and 2012, and as a result New Orleans turned out to be safe. In fact so safe, that Louisiana citizens from nearby areas came to New Orleans for protection.

New Orleans also proved that it benefitted not only during the storm itself but, thanks to the level of investment that had been made, the city regained the trust of citizens and businesses and recovered economically as well. It’s now thriving with events, tourism, conventions, and new entrepreneurs including the film and gaming industry.

…whist in NY a more painful lesson was learned with Hurricane Sandy

A more painful lesson was learned in New York City, which in general is a resilient city. A telecom firm with its head office near the World Trade Centre was hit by debris from the 9/11 terrorist attack. During the rebuild, security advisors recommended to install all critical infrastructure and equipment below ground to safeguard from a potential next terrorist attack. But the next disaster was Hurricane Sandy, and it flooded all 6 basement levels of the building from the nearby Hudson, resulting in almost complete telecom failure in New York and forcing the stock exchange at Wall Street to close. A classic example of preparing for the previous disaster, instead of for the next one.

CWR: From your experience, what are the key ingredients to making the most of disaster recovery?

PD:

1. Investing in resilience pays off, always;

2. Don’t think too long and act fast (experience has shown there is a 5-year window of opportunity before citizens and public officials begin to lose their interest);

3. Look for co-benefits and involve stakeholders;

4. Multifunctional solutions always work best; and

5. Recovery is easier and faster if most basic critical infrastructure (water, electricity, hospitals, public transport, schools, etc.) is still in place or easy to repair. New Orleans’ experience showed that preserving even “soft” social infrastructure, like churches, mosques, and community houses, helped to support a better recovery.

CWR: What are the top three things on your wish list for the world to adapt to climate change and be more resilient to natural disasters?

(PD):

1. Provide resilience to those that are in real need, the most vulnerable ones, and not just those that can afford it. BIG U Coastal protection in Lower Manhattan is an adequate concept for that location, but at an average cost of 1 B$ per mile is unaffordable for most of the Southern Hemisphere, where adaptation is needed most. Here we need low cost, high impact measures;

Climate adaptation measures should be sustainable & low or zero carbon, or even capture carbon

2. Climate adaptation measures should be sustainable and low or zero carbon, or even capture carbon, and not contribute to even more climate change. So, nature based solutions like mangroves and seagrass are often preferable to concrete flood walls, where possible; and

3. Climate adaptation should add social and ecosystem value, improve quality of life for communities, add blue and green spaces, improve ecosystems and make our cities more attractive for people to live in a happier, healthier, equitable and inclusive way. We need more connectors, instead of obstacles, in the urban landscape. These can include parks, nature based coastal protection that allows access to the waterfront instead of concrete floodwalls, drainage tunnels, concrete underground reservoirs, and other civil engineered infrastructure.

Further readings

• A Conversation with CEO of The Water Institute on Louisiana’s Coastal Plan — After the devastating hurricanes of 2005, the first Louisiana Coastal Master Plan was released. We sit down with Jones, President & CEO of the Water Institute, to unpack the plan & see how it is evolving with accelerating climate risks
• The Ocean & Climate Platform Launches Its Recommendations For Coastal Cities To Adapt To Sea Level Rise – Adapting to irreversible rising seas is a collective challenge so to help cities, OCP released policy recommendations. Bongarts-Lebbe shares key priority areas & what’s next
• Resilient Coastal Management In Japan To Reduce Risk & Adapt  — How is Japan tackling its ongoing coastal challenges? Ishiwatari explores Japan’s long history with coastal threats & its evolving strategies amid escalating climate impacts
• Nature as Leverage: Design Approach For Climate Change – Despite the massive climate challenges, Probst, Associate Director at MLA+, remains optimistic thanks to a new design thinking methodology – ‘Nature as Leverage’ – and showcases 3 example projects in the GBA

More on Latest

• SIWW 2024: 5 Key Takeaways — SIWW 2024 saw record attendance from both delegates and city & water leaders, water is clearly moving up agendas. Plus, with a new key climate adaptation pillar & more on net zero water, this year’s event progressed crucial conversations. CWR’s McGregor shares key takeaways
• Future-proofing Singapore’s Coastal Spaces – Interview with Sarah Hiong, Deputy Director of Coastal Protection, PUB — How is PUB future-proofing Singapore’s coastlines against rising seas? Find out in our interview with Hiong, Deputy Director of Coastal Protection at PUB, where we discuss adaptive planning, innovative projects & community engagement
• A Conversation With Satoshi Shimoyama, Vice President of Toray’s Water Treatment & Environment Division — Water scarcity is getting more serious. What’s the key to this dilemma? Water reuse technology according to Satoshi, Vice President of Toray’s Water Treatment & Environment Division. We chat with him to find out more