By Pascal J.W. van den Noort

New York and Amsterdam, like many other global cities, face challenges regarding mobility and requiring immediate solutions. An urgent look at necessary changes in mobility is the objective of the symposium  ‘Global trends in sustainable mobility.’ How did Amsterdam and New York get to where we are now with regard to mobility and what analyses can we bring to the table? What are the systematic differences in urban planning between New York and Amsterdam? Do these differences only exist in the field of mobility or has it other psychological and cultural backgrounds? What makes cities not only livable, but attractive to live in, and what good can mobility bring or bad by making things disappear? Can cities live with less or no petrol cars at all and what does such an idea do to the economy? How will public transport play a role in the triangle with emission rich mobility and more sustainable modes of transport?

These and other questions will be discussed in the Symposium & Salon: Global trends to Sustainable Mobility

The New Amsterdam Bike Slam is a live debate “battle” between two teams with competing visions for how to dramatically increase sustainable mobility in New York City in the years to come, and how to plan the New York Harbor District as part of this achievement. The New Amsterdam Bike Slam is organized from 10 till 13 September 2009. The ideas generated by the competition - and other activities organized during these days - will be heralded as strategies to achieve Mayor Bloomberg’s stated PlaNYC goals to increase bicycling and achieve a “greater, greener NYC” in 2030. Spread over four days, the New Amsterdam Bike Slam is a live design battle, a dance party, a world-class transportation summit, a bridge across the Atlantic, and a path forward.

By Stephen Sabludowsky,  reporter from Louisiana, traveling with the US congressional delegation to the Netherlands to study the Dutch integrated water management system.

The Netherlands is attempting to spend over one billion Euros on what it considers to be a major problem affecting the world including its own  nation–that of “climate change”.

Dutch have a mindset of ensuring that climate and “water” are its friends rather than its foes, but believe that it shares many of the “lessons learned” and future concerns that many throughout the world have about its near and future destinies.  As a result, the country is on an ambitious project of protecting itself from changes that some might consider to be incremental, but, could possibly be resulting in major devastations such as Hurricane Katrina and Rita.  Due to its intense focus on the issue, the Dutch scientific community has been sharing information with the United States and with Louisiana since it believes it can learn much from the United States and in turn can help many communities throughout the nation better deal with “water-related-issues” that impact so many of us. (more…)

By Robert Pirani

When Henry Hudson sailed from Amsterdam harbor almost exactly 400 years ago (he left April 3rd 1609), he left a country built on water - literally as well as politically. Water is still a foundation for Dutch planning decisions. As I learned on a recent trip sponsored by the Netherlands Water Partnership, they even have a name for this relationship: Living With the Water. With a changing climate and competing waterfront uses posing important challenges on this side of the Atlantic, Living With the Water is a philosophy well worth exploring.

Located on the delta of the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt rivers, the medieval Netherlands were filled with peat bogs, tidal marshes, and shallow waters. The locals made a practice of re-naturing this landscape. For the Dutch, this meant enclosing the wetlands with dikes, building ditches and windmills to collect the water and pump it back to the sea, and undergoing seasons of special plantings to pull the salt from the soil. On they went, and today, about 27% of the land and 60% of the population are below sea level. (more…)