Exploring healthy neighbourhoods and the transition to sustainable heating

Abstract

In the coming decades, all existing houses in the Netherlands must use renewable heat sources, as part of making Dutch society more sustainable. This means that by 2050, all 12.000 existing neighbourhoods in the Netherlands should use renewable heat sources. The implementation of measures for this transition may create opportunities to improve the life and living environment of people. This is even more important in vulnerable neighbourhoods, where inhabitants deal with other problems than that of the changing climate. During this research, an approach is developed that is implemented in a real-life case-study, the neighbourhood Groenoord in Schiedam. By doing so, insight is gained in opportunities for addressing both the heat transition and health-related problems. The main question of this master thesis is: “How can municipalities integrate measures that improve health into the transition to sustainable heating for vulnerable neighbourhoods in Dutch cities?” With action research in the form of workshops, data is collected in collaboration with inhabitants of Groenoord, for creating a future vision for their neighbourhood and connecting measures for improving health with heat transition measures. This “Heat & health approach” is developed to help municipalities in co-creating opportunities for health and the heat transition in a vulnerable neighbourhood.