SPS Seminar: Climate change vulnerability and the urban poor, with Hanne van den Berg, JAN 12, 2017, 12h30 BK

Climate change vulnerability and the urban poor: Achieving climate justice through urban resilience strategies 

Hanne van den Berg

“Even though climate change has an impact on most city dwellers, the urban poor are affected disproportionately as poverty remains a key contributing factor in vulnerability. This is due for instance to the urban poor’s often marginal physical location and their limited capacity to prepare for, cope with and recover from the shocks and stresses that climate change inherently brings. Although this relation between climate change vulnerability and poverty is acknowledged, the extent of the impact of climate events on the urban poor is not fully understood yet. Nor are resilience strategies currently able to address the specific vulnerability of the urban poor.

In her doctoral research at Harvard University, Hanne van den Berg (MSc Urbanism ‘11) focuses on the nexus of climate change vulnerability, poverty and urban resilience through a ‘climate justice’ lens. Having worked in practice in Singapore and the Netherlands for the past five years, she has recently started a Doctor of Design degree at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. In this lunch talk, she will introduce the field of her research as well as give a brief introduction to this specific degree. ”

Hanne is an alumna from the Department of Urbanism. She graduated with a thesis on how to integrate an informal settlement into the formal city, using slum upgrading strategies. Hanne van den Berg is a registered urban planner and designer specialized in urban resilience, adaptation to climate change, participatory planning and (urban) decision-making support processes and tools. She has been involved in developing climate adaptation strategies and tools for the Netherlands, Mexico and Bangladesh.

She holds an MSc degree in Urban Planning and Design from Delft University of Technology (cum laude) and an MA degree in Architecture from the University of Cambridge (Honours), as well as a BSC in Natural Sciences (summa cum laude) from Utrecht University.

She currently is a doctoral researcher (Fulbright Fellow) at the Graduate School of Design of Harvard University, focusing on urban resilience. Previously, as Singapore Country Representative for Deltares, she was based in Singapore to strengthen Deltares’ alliance with the National University of Singapore in the fields of High Density Living, Adaptation to Climate Change and Urban Water Management, and to conduct projects and business development in the South East Asian region.

12 January, 2017 12h30 in room BGWEST270, Bouwkunde (Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Julianalaan 134, 2628BL, Delft)

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