Urban Exchange Podcast Episode 13 – Robert van Asten, The Hague – Creating a water vision

In this episode of the Urban Exchange, host Paul Wilson, Chief Business Officer for Connected Places Catapult and Chair of the SmartCitiesWorld Advisory Board, is joined by Robert van Asten, Deputy Mayor and Alderman for Urban Development, Strategy and Europe for The Hague.

On the agenda this month is The Hague’s work on water resilience, its international significance as the peace and justice capital of the world, and the city’s work on advancing the urban resilience practice.

Throughout, Paul delves into the role the Deputy Mayor’s leadership has played throughout this work, finding the key takeaways he has identified along the way, and how these could represent opportunities that other cities can learn from.

It is a fascinating time to have the conversation, following the UN’s Water Conference earlier in 2023 – the first UN conference exclusively about water. Reflecting on the conference, we discover the commitments The Hague has made to the Water Action Agenda, and the key takeaways from the conference that put water front and centre.

The Deputy Mayor has been a big advocate of The Hague’s water resilience approach since taking responsibility for urban development and strategy, and here we discover the nature-based work that the city has been doing around water storage in the city. We also delve into water management as a facet of the city’s wider climate action work, and how the city is getting buy in from key allies and keeping them engaged.

Sharing these insights, conversation turns to the importance of knowledge sharing and being a part of something bigger than yourself. Here, the Deputy Mayor talks about The Hague’s role as the city of peace and justice and the impact that reputation has on the city’s administration in how it carries out its work. There’s also talk of the importance of being part of wider collaborative networks, like the Resilient Cities Network.

About the speakers

Robert van Asten is the Deputy Mayor and Alderman for Urban Development, Strategy and Europe (including Regional Cooperation, Libraries, Resilience and Lobby) for the city of The Hague since 2022. Previously he was alderman for Mobility, Culture and Strategy. He is also the district alderman for Segbroek in The Hague. Before taking office as Alderman in 2018, Van Asten was a member of The Hague’s City Council for D66 since 2014. He studied tax law at Leiden University and worked for, among others, Deloitte and Vistra. 

Paul Wilson is the Chair of the SmartCitiesWorld Advisory Board, and Chief Business Officer for the Connected Places Catapult. Paul has more than 25 years’ international leadership, sales and marketing experience in the B2B Technology Media Telecom sector, including being CMO of global digital transformation association TM Forum and $3bn SunGard Financial Systems. After running the West of England LEP, Paul set up the multi-award-winning Bristol Is Open smart city project in 2014 and created the widely endorsed City as a Platform Manifesto a couple of years later. He went on to advise the UK Government on the design of its 5G Testbeds & Trials programme, and more recently on how the programme should evolve. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Smart Internet Lab.