Retrofitting of urban areas: climate proof for the same cost

Due to climate change the frequency of extreme precipitation is set to increase. To reduce the risk of damage, Dutch municipalities will need to retrofit the urban areas in a climate resilient (CR) way. To justify this investment, they need evidence for the possibilities of CR urban street designs and insight into the costs. For characteristic Dutch typologies of urban residential areas we have investigated how to retrofit the urban area. For 10 cases we designed alternatives of street lay-outs and determined the life cycle costs and benefits. This showed that most flat Dutch urban typologies can easily be retrofitted in a CR way without additional costs (compared to the standard designs).