Work on a liveable low carbon city has often been approached in a technocratic way, not linking to other disciplines and urban practices at a large scale. This paper explores a stakeholder based urban agenda for a more liveable low carbon city by densifying and greening with the case study of Rotterdam inner city. Rotterdam presents a unique European case with a modernistic inner city. Like many North American cities, the inner city for a long time mainly served as a business or shopping district with few inhabitants and few synergetic links between flows, urban functions, and areas. In line with other cities, Rotterdam aims to reduce carbon emissions and provide a high quality of life. To address this, the hypothesis 'densifying and greening leads to a more sustainable inner city', was tested and applied with stakeholders using transition management combined with urban data, modelling, and design. With sustainability indicators, geographic information system (GIS) mapping, and urban models, a baseline study was completed and expected outcomes were described and, where possible, validated in reality. The outcomes confirmed the stated hypothesis and showed that linking design, GIS mapping, and city data to transition management proved successful.

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Many cities are developing and implementing plans for urban restructuring and densification. The Municipality of Rotterdam has explored a number of strategies with the aim of creating a more attractive, lively city centre through densification and greenification. This study has researched what the actual potential for densification is and which impact on urban environmental quality and sustainability can be expected. With geodata and urban modelling, an evidence base was created that charted the effects of the proposed plans. This paper discussed how this was done and how it supported that particular stage of the process. It is expected that such evidence bases can significantly contribute to co-creation. By clarifying the societal and business value cases for different stakeholders inherent to plans, investments, and by exploring alternatives, a common operational picture is created that reduces complexity, speeds up the process, and enhances quality of outcomes.@en