Rotterdam Omgevingsvisie 2040
Core idea
Energy transition, densification, climate resilience
Why it matters
Sets spatial choices for port-city future
Description
An integrated environmental and spatial vision for Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, adopted by the Gemeente Rotterdam in 2021 under the incoming Dutch Environment and Planning Act. It sets out spatial choices for the port city's future: densification around transit nodes and the inner city, large-scale housing production, the energy transition of the port-industrial complex, and climate resilience in a delta city largely below sea level. It is a framework document guiding subsequent area plans rather than a blueprint.
Significance
Rotterdam's omgevingsvisie exemplifies the new generation of Dutch integrated environment-and-space plans, and continues the city's post-war tradition of bold self-reinvention from modernist reconstruction to climate-adaptive delta city. It is internationally watched for how a major port economy plans its decarbonisation, and for Dutch approaches to combining water management with dense urban growth.
What shaped it
- Urban resilience (2013)
- Sustainable development (Brundtland) (1987)
- The 15-Minute City (2016)
- COVID-19 reshapes the city (2020)