A River Reborn: An explorative landscape architecture design focussed on restoring natural river dynamics for the Nile River Basin

The River Nile has been a lifeline for northeastern Africa for thousands of years, supporting the growth of civilization, agriculture, and trade. The history of the Nile can be traced back to ancient times. The fertile banks of the Nile have supported the civilization of the ancient Egyptians. Since Egypt received almost no rain, the ancient...

Resilient Medway River Landscape: Adaptive Design Strategies for a Sustainable Coastal Landscape

Coastal areas and riverine cities accommodate the great majority of the world’s population, but they are extremely vulnerable to flooding risks. In the cities next to the Medway River estuary, the capacity to adapt to flood risks had been weakened by urban development and intense industrial usage. This degrading led to the loss of flood buffers...

Assessing resilience of river systems: Applied to the Meuse river system for shipping and drinking water production

Rivers provide many of our day-to-day needs. They allow, for instance, the production of drinking water and the movement of goods via inland waterways. However, river systems experience disturbances, such as droughts and pollution plumes. These disturbances can impair the functioning of river systems and their ability to provide the desired...

On the linkage between hydrology and society—learning from history about two-way interactions for sustainable development

The challenge of sustainable development is enshrined in the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations. The 17 goals and its various targets are unique with water being one of the cross cutting themes. Taking examples of past water dependent societies in a comparative setting, this paper challenges the new field of...

Towards Resilient Delta: Integration of natural dynamics as water safety and climate adaptation measures within the urbanised delta city of Dordrecht

As the landscape of the south western river delta in the Netherlands is increasingly urbanised, the processes of urbanisation and the dynamics of nature can no longer go in their separate ways. Measures for water safety, that over the course of recent history has been diverting, regulating, and controlling natural dynamics away from the urban...

Modeling dynamics and adaptation at operational and structural scales for the ex-ante economic evaluation of large dams in an African context

Dams can produce electricity and ensure water security, but at the same time they radically alter the hydrological regime of rivers with significant consequences for the economic and environmental welfare of the region in which they are located. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is currently the most frequently used framework for the economic...