To encourage climateadaptive building in the Netherlands the Covenant ClimateAdaptive Building (CKAB) was developed by a consortium of stakeholders (Convenant klimaatadaptief bouwen in ZuidHolland, 2018). This nonbinding agreement proposed standards for six (climate) aspects in order to adapt the Netherlands to a changing climate. These standards were first applied in pilots in Haarlemmermeer, Utrecht, Rotterdam (Vlot et al., 2021) and in Dordrecht, where the new residential area of Amstelwijck was planned. Implementing climateadaptive measures ánd standards is yet an innovative process and iterative learning is required to improve this process. We want to know what role standards played in selecting climateadaptive measures in Dordrecht and what result they achieved. This study focused on three climate aspects specifically: heat stress, pluvial flooding and droughts. The case study in Dordrecht was evaluated by means of a stateoftheart hydrological model, UrbanWB. Urban plans of Amstelwijck provided the basis to research applicability of this model as a design and assessment tool (i). The goal of this method was to improve the integral understanding of the complexity and interrelations of a (hydrological) system for designers and policymakers, which would allow them to make better choices. Additionally, this same model was used to assess uncertainty in design, engineering and climate (ii). A quantification was made for the relative relevance of design choices, such as decreasing paved surfaces, local conditions, such as soil type or drainage velocities, and climate change, with increased evaporation, precipitation and extremes. Additionally, CKAB standards and the process of applying them in Amstelwijck was researched (iii). Two groups of stakeholders, goal oriented (Municipality of Dordrecht, WSHD & hired staff) and user oriented (project developers & hired staff), were identified and these groups were interviewed with the goal of learning what kind of standards encourage climate adaptation and finding where barriers or enablers exist. This was done with the help of the concept of user centred design (Long et al., 2016), inspiring the stakeholder groups and a division into standards focused on goals or means, and the concepts of principle/rulebased approach (Nakpodia et al., 2016) and creative freedom/specification (Frei and Di Marzo Serugendo, 2011). With this research it could be concluded that UrbanWB can help designers by providing arguments for design choices, which was mentioned as an enabler in interviews. The model touched on interconnectivity between different climate aspects and five model indicators were identified to compare the performance of different plans. For assessment purposes no major improvements were made yet compared to models commonly employed, except that this method offers potential for a tool, which is easytoadopt. By verification with other models this should become more clear. The model architecture was found to be less suitable for assessing urban plans on heat stress and to a lesser extent drought, but proved valuable for pluvial flooding. On uncertainty three important notions were made: climate change is a significant uncertainty; local conditions are decisive for the ’robustness’, ability to perform under different conditions, of an urban system; design choices can have large effects on the hydrology of the system, some are effective enough to deal with climate change. The type of soil was found to be a decisive factor for every climate aspect. It is reaffirmed in interviews and focus groups that local conditions could be listed as a possible theme in the process of climate adaptation. In working with CKAB standards for the first two parts of this research ideas about the way of description, direction and commitment of standards were already formed, but the interview analysis affirmed and strengthened this view. Ideal standards should be specific, focused on goals and rulebased, but principles are leading and exceptions should be allowed to ensure creative freedom, which is important in an innovative process. Designers, policy makers and engineers could apply the methodology used in this study to promote climate adaptation and deal with the uncertainty brought by climate change. The results of this research emphasized the importance of integral thinking in design and lawmaking, since this provides more insight and argumentation for selecting climateadaptive measures A perception that standards should be focused on goals instead of means is crucial to directing urban developments.