Deltas, laboratories for change

The RAW association offers a cross-section of the world’s major river deltas, based on their specific geographical features at the interface between land, sea and river. The “Delta Lab” initiative aims to improve territorial resilience and adaptation to climate change through culture, heritage and exchanges between deltas facing the same issues in different international contexts. This comparison aims to create a twinning between deltaic territories to unite in the face of the challenges of climate change. The aim is to raise awareness among stakeholders (institutional players, associations, land-use planning practitioners and researchers) of current climate risks and the strategies available for adapting to them in different contexts.

This awareness-raising is achieved through participatory workshops, exhibitions, heritage enhancement, storytelling and “ready-to-finance” development project programs. To date, the association has worked on two deltas : the Rhône (France) and the Gange-Brahmaputra (Bangladesh). The initiative is set to be extended to other major international rivers (Danube, Rhine-Meuse, Senegal, Mekong and the Red River).