On 30 September and 1 October 2021, the 4TU Centre for Resilience Engineering and the Strategic Research Programme DeSIRE (Designing Systems for Informed Resilience Engineering) organized the yearly 4TU DeSIRE-conference on Resilience Engineering. With almost 60 participants we shared views, theories and ideas about resilience. From the Theory of Change, transdisciplinarity to the RElastiCity Game and four interesting regional cases. It was an informative, interactive, valuable and active programme. Nice to see everyone live together again!
The aim of this national conference is to provide a forum for scientists and practitioners to connect, share experiences and raise challenges on all aspects related to Resilience Engineering of social-technological-ecological systems. Together, we want to build a resilience engineering community and start or further strengthen collaborations.
Growing resilience community
The family of 4TU DeSIRE resilience programme has really grown in recent years. It was the first time for us to welcome in person our new Postdocs on board. Great to greet these young ambitious scholars working on various aspects of resilience of water, energy, agriculture, urban and transport systems.
Four cases in the picture
During the conference we had two long break-out sessions for an in-depth discussion with practitioners on four resilience case studies:
- Case 1: Henschotermeer
- Case 2: Risk Meter
- Case 3: NOVI region Zwolle
- Case 4: Canal and port of Twente
Each of the four cases developed ideas that could be followed up with the 4TUs. In addition, there will be MSc topics developed together and there are ideas circulating for future collaborative proposals and engagements in projects where science can meet practice.
Closure of SURF project
For Carissa Champlin the conference was a festive closure of the successful SURF project and the platform of Open Educational Resources on Urban Resilience. She honoured the people who have been supporting her in setting it up and also outlined the next steps for the Resilience Academy.
Climate excursion in Zwolle
At the second day the researchers took a boat and bike ride through the city of Zwolle. This led them to interesting climate projects, such as the Spoorzone, which has been designed as a super sponge, the climate proof Kraanbolwerk and the new Frankhuis neighbourhood. The researchers were shown around by climate experts Nanco Dolman (Royal Haskong DHV) and Bas Agerbeek (Arcadis), and by urban planner Henk Snel of the municipality of Zwolle.