Wielwijk residents measure climate and living experience
The Wielwijk neighborhood is in full motion! Everything is happening. Also in terms of the design of the neighborhood. Flats have been demolished in various places. Signs of new construction projects are appearing. 14 years ago, the municipality of Dordrecht already asked Wielwijk residents to share their ideas for their neighborhood. Due to the economic crisis and the crisis in the construction sector, building was delayed, but the restart has begun. And again, we ask you to play a role in this. Because we are going to measure whether all actions also deliver the desired results. With the help of residents.
The effects of climate change are also felt by the residents in Wielwijk. Flooding during heavy rainfall, for example in Wielwijkpark. On very hot summer days, there is ‘heat stress’ in streets with little greenery. We are going to do something about that. Among other things, by redesigning Wielwijkpark. The M.H. Trompweg is still a wide asphalt road. That will make way for the ‘Tromptuinen’. The connecting road that currently runs through the neighborhood will be moved to the edge of the neighborhood. It will therefore become a more park-like environment with more space for greenery and water.
Life Critical
The developments in Wielwijk are happening partly with the support of the European project ‘Life Critical’. What is special is that the effects of all the measures we take in Wielwijk are being measured. And we do that not only as a municipality but together with the residents of Wielwijk.
Oftentimes redevelopment projects have a bigger goal. Achieving that goal can be done by adding housing, by changing the types of homes, adding greenery, redeveloping the park, and so on. Then we carry it out. And that is usually it. ‘Life Critical’ provides funding to measure whether the measures really achieve the desired effect. Do the residents of Wielwijk indeed experience less water nuisance after the redevelopment? Less heat stress? And has the living experience really improved? We do these measurements not only afterwards. We will also map the current situation before the redevelopment starts. The municipality will conduct measurements for that, but we also want to collect very local data. And for that, we need you.
Sensors in the neighbourhood
Neighborhood residents who help collect measurement data, we call that ‘citizen science’ or, in English: ‘citizen science’. What are we going to measure? We already have ideas about that, but residents of Wielwijk can also suggest topics that we are going to measure. For example, what is the level of water nuisance? How much rainfall occurs then? How is the air quality? How hot does it actually get on scorching days? What about nitrogen? To be able to measure all of this, we work in the Life Critical project together with the company Imec. This company develops sensors. As a resident, you can hang these sensors in your house – if you want to. But it can also be in your garden or on your balcony. We also hang sensors in public spaces. Both in the areas that are being greened and in the areas that remain as they are. This way we get insight into the difference.
When do we measure?
We are now collecting all ideas on how we can approach the measurements. At the beginning of next year, we will go into the neighborhood so that the residents of Wielwijk can respond and also contribute ideas that we can take into account in the measurements. For this, we are organizing resident meetings. Activities will emerge from these meetings that we will set up together with the residents. So that this really becomes a project for and with the neighborhood. The process of measuring and monitoring will continue until 2025. The redevelopment of Wielwijk will be completed well before that time. But once we have implemented all the measures, we especially want to map out their effects thoroughly.