City-to-City Learning Within City
Networks to Cater City Needs
to Climate Adaptation—Results
of a Preliminary Study
Wolfgang Haupt, Chris Zevenbergen,
and Sebastiaan van Herk
Abstract
Over the past years, a considerable number of
cities joined together in networks that address
climate more and more increasingly also
adaptation. The presented research focuses
on one key aspect of those networks: The
sharing of knowledge and experience among
the member cities, referred to as city-to-city
learning. Due to climate change cities worldwide are facing enormous challenges that
require an acceleration of the learning process
of how to respond to them. Transnational city
networks can help to provide a platform for
learning from each other and connect cities to
work together. However, the questions are
how useful and effective these knowledge
sharing processes are in practice, and how
existing networks can facilitate and improve
them. This was examined through interviews
with key stakeholders representing cities that
joined transnational networks. Main results
were that cities are interested in learning from
their peer cities that face similar challenges,
and to follow the examples and adopt the
strategies of pioneering cities. The contribution of networks were particularly seen in
(i) facilitating knowledge sharing, (ii) promoting the adaptation and resilience work within
the own city council, (iii) providing (easier)
access to funding and, most importantly,
(iv) enabling the establishment of informal
city-to-city relationships based on mutual
trust. Furthermore, some city representatives
asked for a stronger involvement of the private
sector in order to finance the municipalities’
climate change action, whereby the network
could act as a facilitator.
Keywords
Adaptation Á City-to-city learning Á Peer
learning Policy learning Á Resilience Á
Transnational city networks
1 Introduction
Cities nowadays are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Climate change is
increasingly putting pressure on cities manifesting in a higher incidence of flooding, heatwaves,
water scarcity and the like. Hosting the majority
of the world’s population and being at the forefront of many issues deriving from climate
change also results in an increased awareness of
W. Haupt (&)
Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space,
Erkner, Germany
e-mail: wolfgang.haupt@leibniz-irs.de
C. Zevenbergen
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft,
The Netherlands
S. van Herk
Bax and Company, Barcelona, Spain
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Hülsmann and M. Jampani (eds.), A Nexus Approach for Sustainable Development,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57530-4_14
223
Networks to Cater City Needs
to Climate Adaptation—Results
of a Preliminary Study
Wolfgang Haupt, Chris Zevenbergen,
and Sebastiaan van Herk
Abstract
Over the past years, a considerable number of
cities joined together in networks that address
climate more and more increasingly also
adaptation. The presented research focuses
on one key aspect of those networks: The
sharing of knowledge and experience among
the member cities, referred to as city-to-city
learning. Due to climate change cities worldwide are facing enormous challenges that
require an acceleration of the learning process
of how to respond to them. Transnational city
networks can help to provide a platform for
learning from each other and connect cities to
work together. However, the questions are
how useful and effective these knowledge
sharing processes are in practice, and how
existing networks can facilitate and improve
them. This was examined through interviews
with key stakeholders representing cities that
joined transnational networks. Main results
were that cities are interested in learning from
their peer cities that face similar challenges,
and to follow the examples and adopt the
strategies of pioneering cities. The contribution of networks were particularly seen in
(i) facilitating knowledge sharing, (ii) promoting the adaptation and resilience work within
the own city council, (iii) providing (easier)
access to funding and, most importantly,
(iv) enabling the establishment of informal
city-to-city relationships based on mutual
trust. Furthermore, some city representatives
asked for a stronger involvement of the private
sector in order to finance the municipalities’
climate change action, whereby the network
could act as a facilitator.
Keywords
Adaptation Á City-to-city learning Á Peer
learning Policy learning Á Resilience Á
Transnational city networks
1 Introduction
Cities nowadays are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Climate change is
increasingly putting pressure on cities manifesting in a higher incidence of flooding, heatwaves,
water scarcity and the like. Hosting the majority
of the world’s population and being at the forefront of many issues deriving from climate
change also results in an increased awareness of
W. Haupt (&)
Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space,
Erkner, Germany
e-mail: wolfgang.haupt@leibniz-irs.de
C. Zevenbergen
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft,
The Netherlands
S. van Herk
Bax and Company, Barcelona, Spain
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Hülsmann and M. Jampani (eds.), A Nexus Approach for Sustainable Development,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57530-4_14
223