Urbanizing river deltas are highly susceptible to sea level rise and extreme weather events such as floods and droughts. Water-related disasters are already happening more often due to climate change, rapid urbanization, unsustainable land use and aging infrastructure threatening a large fraction of human and natural environments in these low lying and sinking areas around the globe. As stress levels of climate change are accelerating, societal and physical transformations are essential for adapting our deltas to climate change. In the Netherlands, imagination and evidence by design in the form of a long-term spatial vision, played a pivotal role in the past century to set, share and accomplish a new direction to overcome flood disasters by altering the coastlines and riverbeds of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. The unprecedented rainfall in July 2021 and the storm in December 2021 which hit Western Europe revealed the effectiveness of this new direction. We therefore plea for a prominent role of design in climate science and delta management to imagine, analyse and communicate future perspectives for climate adaptation in urbanizing deltas.@en

Ecological Urbanism and Water Sensitive Urban Design have a central contribution to make in protecting and caring for people, nature and water in cities but readings of Urban Political Ecology evidence how ecological metaphors in urban design can easily translate into discriminatory urban development processes. This paper posits that for UPE to become meaningful for urban design practice, it is necessary to move beyond a critique. Instead, the insights of UPE should be pro-actively mobilized to develop a new vision of water sensitivity. The paper therefore identifies ways in which the key learnings of the critical social sciences, namely UPE, can be mobilized to support Water Sensitive Urban Design practice. How can ecological urbanists imagine new, more politically astute, forms of water sensitive living, charting design processes that not just recognize but also actively question and challenge uneven socio-ecological dynamics? In answering this question, the goal of this article is to make use of critique from UPE to influence Ecological Urbanists' goals and activate their political alignment with agendas that prioritize social equity. In imagining a new form of WSUD, we tried as much as possible not to over-instrumentalize UPE by rejecting the suggestion that some UPE ‘lessons’ or ‘insights’ could simply be inserted into ecological urbanism. On a different direction, we argue for a different emphasis in WSUD that does not deny the causes of current environmental degradation, pollution and depletion but, on the contrary, actively takes issue with and challenges the extractive and exploitative roots of contemporary urbanization processes.

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The Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam on the Lower Xingu River has severely affected the river’s water pulse and threatens a multitude of endemic species and indigenous nations. A great number of dams are expected to be constructed in the years to come in the Amazon river basin which will bring further devastation. Historically, Indigenous and local populations have always opposed such endeavours and the preservation of biodiversity and forests within their territories is crucial to decelerate and revert climate change effects. Indigenous nations steward and protect over 80% of the world’s biodiversity even though they are only 5% of the world’s population. Despite this, defence of indigenous rights and land demarcation has been slow. Moreover, recommendations to expand hydropower generation have gained traction to enable the energy transition, as seen in last year’s Glasgow COP26. This proposal exposes the impact of Belo Monte dam on human and non-human existences and proposes an analytical framework which envisions the territory through a multitude of perspectives as well as various management arrangements. This framework intends to propose methods which can facilitate shared occupation and enable the coexistence of diverse groups in the region through policy and design. The limits of urban practice when acting over such territories must be questioned and re-defined. If our field intends to position itself within such regions, we must begin to propose an alternative paradigm which can adequately territorialize cosmopolitics. Is Cosmourbanism achievable?@en

The transformation of Pearl River Delta (PRD) is characterized by a complex layering, spatial and temporal differentiation. Its complexity is not only caused by interactions between multiple layers like blue-green spatial structure and urban spatial structure, but also caused by the interactions of several large sub-regions that are mutually interrelated. This paper aims to characterise the spatial structure and its evolution as a basis for the development of spatial strategies for future development. In this research, the combination of multiple spatial–temporal approaches and multiple layer approaches for its spatial structure analysis is employed. Firstly, after mapping the evolution process of the PRD, several important sub-regions are analysed. Secondly, evolution mechanism and driving forces are studied in detail. Thirdly, main existing problems are exposed and the causes of these problems are analysed. Finally, several possible strategies for future land-use schemes of PRD are outlined. It is proposed that the land use of future PRD regions should be divided into three spatial zones and four categories of land use. The goals and measures of development for each land-use category are highlighted in order to make contributions to future planning and design.

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Niet-duurzame economische en stedelijke groei en klimaatverandering vergroten de urgentie om onze huidige praktijk van deltabeheer radicaal te veranderen. Het is belangrijker dan ooit om nu al te beginnen met het opbouwen van kennis die nodig is om nieuwe vormen van beheer te ontwikkelen. Deze zullen het huidige systeem van ruimtelijke ordening ingrijpend beïnvloeden. Om kansen en risico's te verkennen, is de TU Delft samen met Deltares, Resilient Delta, Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving (PBL), Erasmus Universiteit Wageningen een ambitieus, interdisciplinair en meerjarig programma gestart waarin ontwerp en ontwerp gebaseerd onderzoek centraal staan: Redesigning Deltas.@en

The latest IPCC report which is named ‘The Synthesis Report , Climate Change 2023’ was released on 20 March 2023 to inform the 2023 Global Stocktake under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The report finds that ‘there is more than 50% chance that global temperature rise will reach or surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2021 and 2040 across studied scenarios, and under a high-emissions pathway, specifically, the world may hit this threshold even sooner, between 2018 and 2037.’ These findings again emphasise the growing pressures and challenges that deltas are confronting in their path towards future development. It is evident that the global imperative for deltas to adapt has reached an unprecedented level, but at the same time the question arises if adaptation is enough. Especially considering the scope of societal challenges that need to be the point of departure for sustainable spatial transformation in general. Aren't they of such a fundamental nature that we need to reconsider our urban system as a whole and aim for transformation instead of adaptation? Looking more closely to the societal challenges we can organise them according to their environmental and socio-economic drivers. The environmental drivers are the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis. The socio-economic drivers are ongoing urbanisation, the energy transition, and the new economy.@en

The power of design is to be able to see beyond the existing reality and push its boundaries to new sustainable futures. It enables change in ways of doing that created the existing reality in the first place. It creates change. Redesigning Deltas investigates this power of interdisciplinary design in which urban, landscape, and engineering disciplines project a future on the basis of the natural and spatial qualities of the Dutch Delta. Redesigning Deltas is a collaboration involving the Delta Urbanism group and various faculties of the TU Delft, the Delta program, Deltares, Resilient Delta, Erasmus University, Wageningen University, and PBL. Redesigning Deltas employed several activities in 2022 of which one is the design study.@en

In rapidly growing urban contexts, water plays a pivotal role in the transitions the urban environment goes through to sustain the quality of life of its population. Spatial planning and design are essential for the facilitation and manifestation of such transitions. Focusing on Bhuj, a rapidly growing Indian city in a hot arid desert climate, its crucial yet changing sensitivity to urban water flows over time is assessed. The concept of water sensitivity is coined as a goal to pursue by the Water-Sensitive Urban Design approach. In India, however, much of the urban design and development processes are of an unplanned and informal nature, seemingly inhibiting the water sensitivity of urban transitions. Reviewing spatial planning paradigms and their manifestation in space in Bhuj over time, however, brings to light a pre-existing water sensitivity. Yet it also shows a shift from the supply security-oriented ingenious watershed expansion to catastrophe-steered and urban expansion-driven water system negligence. Review and discussion of past and present urban water transitions and management points out drivers, barriers, and their interrelationships, to enable and advance water-sensitive urban development tied to local history, traditional knowledge, and context specificities.@en

In dit ontwerp wordt Rotterdam door het uitbreiden van ring 14 een sponsstad met een eigen zoetwatervoorraad doordat de Maas een zoet binnenmeer wordt. Het opgevangen regenwater kan plaatselijk in de stad worden gebufferd. Dat maakt dat de stad kan voorzien in de eigen waterbehoefte. De haven valt buiten de ring en wordt geheel in de bestaande traditie in de toekomst opgehoogd om de economische motor blijvend te laten draaien. Elke dertig jaar zal een kavel worden opgehoogd en in balans met de natuur worden herontwikkeld.@en

The Netherlands has initiated a process of ‘policy boosterism’ that attempts to make Dutch urban water culture and its associated imaginary of water sensitivity fit for global export. This strategic shift depends on the collaboration of a mosaic of actors, private and non-private to promote knowledge sharing between countries. As this new dynamic emerges, urban design becomes strategic to create future visions for cities towards more sustainable relationships with water. One such vision stems from Water Sensitive Urban Design, an approach that borrows from ecological urbanism with the objective to restore water ecologies in cities. This article looks at how urban design knowledge from the Netherlands provides concepts to describe, evaluate and promote urban water as an enabler of sustainability globally. It also investigates how networks of actors from the Netherlands interact to make imaginations about Water Sensitive Cities globally mobile. This entails the packaging of a mobile water culture that, ultimately, can re-shape power relations. Considering that cities rely on privileged accesses to global networks to disseminate ideas, port cities are potential sites for ‘policy boosterism’. The port city of Rotterdam, for instance, is the model city in the concerted effort to promote Dutch urban water expertise (Goh, 2020) and, in the context of Indo-Dutch partnerships, a port city was chosen for an urban design initiative: Water as Leverage in Chennai. The project acts as mechanisms through which imaginations of urban water is packaged from the Netherlands for global export. Interestingly, the principal way in which this translation happens is through the creation of an imaginary/vision/framework of water sensitivity that is appealing and meets broad societal goals. In this context, design becomes a powerful tool through which these broad visions are made ‘fit for purpose’ and influence – or not – local ideas of urban landscapes.@en

Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) identifies water sensitivity as a goal for cities to strive for and develop towards. Certain cities may face rapidly changing socioeconomic and urban dynamics, or lack of data and documentation, greater than those in which WSUD has been conceptualized. Landscape-informed, design-based fieldwork methods of walking, observing, describing and drawing can help to understand how hydrological systems are linked to local water cultures and practices. This shifts the definition of water sensitivity away from a universal ideal future scenario to one that is mutable and determined by local qualities. The case of Kozhikode, India, illustrates how fieldwork and its forms of representation, with an emphasis on the design processes that WSUD calls for to be operationalized, can shed light on urban hydro-cultural dimensions. These dimensions extend hydrological indicators by incorporating cultural insights to be integrated into WSUD, thereby enhancing the context specificity and appropriateness of the concept. As such, design methodologies and the hydro-cultural dimension offer valuable contributions to WSUD and can facilitate its adoption worldwide.@en

Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) offers an approach for alternative spatial organisation of cities and infrastructures fit to address urban and climatic challenges. However, its relevance in all contexts is questioned and transferability concerns arise when mainstreamed. Instead of considering water sensitivity as guiding concept for the ultimate state of an urban environment, this article argues that water sensitivity is a context- and culture-specific variable, dictated and confined by other site variables. As such, WSUD implies an interaction between water sensitivity as context and concept, in which context shapes concept and concept provides focus on how to address context. Sensitivity therefore refers to the thoughtfulness of reading a context, highlighting to what extent site-specific urban conditions can be identified to be considered water-sensitive. This understanding enables local urban designers and water managers to appropriate and engage in WSUD fit for the cultural, socio-economic, and physical context.@en

This paper aims to contribute to the limited understanding and recognition of soil ecosystem services (SoES) in spatial planning. In light of its critical role in climate crises and due to its global degradation, soil has drawn considerable attention in the recent global agenda. As one of its vital services, soil serves as a terrestrial carbon pool, which significantly contributes to offset greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere (EEA, 2012). The capacity of soil in climate change mitigation and in the provision of ecosystem services can be enhanced and safeguarded by integrated spatial planning strategies. However, due to limited political attention and fragmented frameworks on land and soil management, anthropogenic pressures on soil are reaching critical limits and causing soil degradation. In this context, the paper underlines the interconnectedness of SoES, climate change and spatial planning and discusses their multifaceted interactions through a hypothetical framework based on the Nexus approach. Herein, the paper aims to (i) develop an outline for classification of SoES; (ii) analyze background dynamics of soil degradation interacting with climate change; (iii) discuss recent policy frameworks referring to soil protection and SoES; (iv) propose measures for possible integration of SoES into spatial planning through SoES-Climate Change-Spatial Planning Nexus.

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To achieve inclusive and sustainable urban development, the introduction of water related Nature Based Solutions (NBS) have proven to be eff ective in specific urban contexts. Different sources point out their contribution to various SDG’s in Europe, Australia and the United States, all of which are regions with high GDP levels with strong institutional contexts. However, in regions that are underdeveloped, have weak institutional contexts, high social and economic inequality and are situated in more vulnerable or extreme landscapes, the so called ‘vulnerable geographies’, the experience with Nature Based Solutions is less extensive (PBL, 2018). This report presents the results of a literature review that aims at providing a first (broad) exploration of NBS in contexts outside the regions mentioned above.@en

New approaches to combine flood protection, soil regeneration and water management strategies with urban design, landscape architecture and spatial planning in delta regions cannot do without knowledge and understanding of history. To find a new balance between urbanization, climate change, geopolitical shifts, the energy transition in deltas it is crucial to understand the evaluation of the system from the past to what it is today and can be in the future. The logic of the relationship between design, engineering, science and governance on the one hand, and the logic with the natural system on the other, determined the current conditions and its performance. In the development of cities, at any time, there is the concept of Longue Durée recognizing the formative forces of nature and the relevance of historic concepts to take into account (Braudel, 1949). The main question of this issue is: How can interdisciplinary approaches of design, engineering, science and governance respond to the environmental crisis and steer upon the Longue Durée of the delta? @en

The title of this journal is the offspring of Han Meyer who started the interdisciplinary research movement Delta Urbanism about 25 years ago. The two words describe the concept that brings focus on an integrative and interdisciplinary approach in the planning, designing and engineering of urbanised deltas –fragile and highly dynamic landscapes at sea, in deltas, and in estuaries– facing extreme challenges from competing claims and interests. As discourse, it investigates the possibilities to combine flood resilience, soil regeneration and water management strategies with urban design, landscape architecture and spatial planning. Finally, as practice, it has the objective to improve spatial form, function, and performance and innovate urban systems in urban and metropolitan delta and coastal regions. The urgency for this novel approach is seen in the quest for a new dynamic equilibrium between urban growth, port- development, agriculture, environmental and ecological qualities, flood-defence systems and fresh-water supply. Delta Urbanism, as a field of interest and action, positions itself in this search of a new modernity: planning, designing and engineering the co-existence and equity between different forms of life and inhabitation and their reciprocity within the natural environment as a whole. @en

The South-West Delta in the Netherlands and the Thames Estuary in England both face extreme sea level rise and ecological degradation. Taneha Bacchin and her students take these conditions as an opportunity to launch a gradual revolution that redefines the land-sea edge as a productive and protective ecosystem.@en

While the severity of the climate crisis calls for a discussion on transformative and potentially disruptive change, science, engineering, design, governance and practice are currently too detached to effectively contribute to such discussions.

The spatial manifestation of climate crisis rarely appeals to one’s imagination. Yet, when reviewing the range of sea level rise projections and their accelerated rate of change, it is clear that understanding when and why to navigate between mitigation, adaptation and transformation measures is essential for flourishing coastal communities globally.

The Netherlands is one of those and has been characterised by a long history of renowned flood risk and water management as well as spatial planning. Facing the potential extreme scenarios of sea level rise, the country now however struggles to include measures preparing for a shift from incremental to the required transformative strategies.

This research project identifies the criticalities by means of a risk matrix and stress maps as an initial act to introduce the Sea Level Impact Knowledge Collect and its transdisciplinary Research by Design approach to guide the discussion on transformative change and its implementation in living labs.

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Urban water systems face severe challenges such as urbanisation, population growth and climate change. Traditional technical solutions, i.e., pipe-based, grey infrastructure, have a single purpose and are proven to be unsustainable compared to multi-purpose nature-based solutions. Green Infrastructure encompasses on-site stormwater management practices, which, in contrast to the centralised grey infrastructure, are often decentralised. Technologies such as green roofs, walls, trees, infiltration trenches, wetlands, rainwater harvesting and permeable pavements exhibit multi-functionality. They are capable of reducing stormwater runoff, retaining stormwater in the landscape, preserving the natural water balance, enhancing local climate resilience and also delivering ecological, social and community services. Creating multi-functional, multiple-benefit systems, however, also warrants multidisciplinary approaches involving landscape architects, urban planners, engineers and more to successfully create a balance between cities and nature. This Special Issue aims to bridge this multidisciplinary research gap by collecting recent challenges and opportunities from on-site systems up to the watershed scale.

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