Results from the workshop "A Dutch–U.S. Dialogue on Governance Capacity for Extreme Heat"

On Wednesday 4 November US and Dutch participants gathered to discuss what issues we encounter when governing heat in our respective countries. We had visitors from municipalities, safety regions, public health organizations, RIVM, academic institutes, and more. Below we compile the results of the day. The sections include: main findings, program and slides, video segments from the US, participant contact information, and photos (gathered in the coming week). 

Main findings: For the Netherlands, while extreme heat is managed by the ministry of public health, and response procedures to heat are well embedded in more regional institutions, addressing the real issue of infrastructure would mean creating and bridging the gap with other fields and institutes. The calls to action were shared among many participants, with quotes such as "heat is everywhere, we need a new way of looking at it", "heat is everyone's problem and no one's responsibility", and "we have to be preventative in our heat governance". 

Our program consisted of four parts, each led by a different project co-organizer. You can find the related slides in the table below. 

Part	Main goal	Main question	Organizer
Part 1 – Getting to know one another	Understand	What heat-risk challenges are we trying to govern?	Sean Vrielink – University Twente
Part 2 – Survey results	Diagnose	How capable is our current governance system?	Namkyung Oh – Auburn University
Part 3 – Panel discussion	Explain	Why do these capacity gaps persist?	Su Li Heng – TU Delft
Part 4 – Interactive co-development of solutions	Act	How could governance capacity be strengthened?	Srijith Balakrishnan – TU Delft
Wrap up	Summarize	What do you take with you?	Sean Vrielink – University Twente

As there was limited funding, and the time difference with the US did not allow for as many visitors to attend online, several heat experts in the US were interviewed beforehand and segments of these interviews were shown during parts 1 and 2. You can find these segments below.

 

 Overview of participants and their contact information:

Name	Organization	Email address
Liam Boedhoe	Team crisis management Safety Region Twente	l.boedhoe@vrtwente.nl
Linda Jansen	Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center	e.g.j.jansen@erasmusmc.nl
Megan Heim-LaFrombois	Associate Professor Political Science	meh0085@auburn.edu
Patrick Klaassen	GGD Nijmegen	pklaassen@ggdgelderlandzuid.nl
John Morris	Auburn University	jcm0143@auburn.edu
Steven van der Lelie	Public Health service in North Gelderland	s.vanderlelie@ggdnog.nl
Elena Bakhanova	University Twente	e.bakhanova@utwente.nl
Hanin Boulahfa	GHOR veiligheidsregio Utrecht	h.boulahfa@vru.nl
Kathleen Halpin	Louisville Mayor's Office (Kentucky)	Kathleen.Halpin@louisvilleky.gov
Mathijs van Oostrum	Municipality of Hardenberg	mathijs.vanoostrum@hardenberg.nl
Werner Hagens	RIVM	werner.hagens@rivm.nl
Beau Warbroek	University Twente	w.d.b.warbroek@utwente.nl
Eli Brouwer	Municipality The Hague	eli.brouwer@denhaag.nl
Zakia Sultana	Utrecht University	z.sultana@uu.nl

Photos (more uploaded later)