PowerShift: Towards a Sustainable Post-Fossil Scape

Since the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas have provided the vast majority of energy used by our globalising civilisation. The rapid growth in energy use in the past 250 years has led to increasing fossil fuel usage, which has been the primary driver behind the ongoing climate emergency. Policy measures in...

Ports, Portscapes and Port Landscapes: The 100 year vision and strategy for circular and just spaces

Portscapes are one of the most important hubs in the global economic system that facilitate the movement of goods and shape the socio-economic conditions of their surroundings. However, in times of climate change, they face unprec- edented challenges to completely transform their current ways of operating and fully reduce their contribution to a...

Chance to Change the Chain: Imagining a More Circular and Inclusive Food Supply Chain

Food. It is grown, processed, distributed, sold, eaten and then oftentimes<br/>carelessly discarded. In the European Union, 88 million tonnes<br/>of food waste is produced each year, while the Netherlands stands<br/>out as the EU’s largest producer. Food waste causes soil degradation,<br/>emits significant amounts of greenhouse gasses and can...

Butterfly Effect: Affordable circular bio-based building for South Holland

The Province of South Holland, not unlike the other provinces in the Netherlands, has a big housing demand. To meet it more building materials are needed in a short time frame. The current building sector is not environmentally friendly. Hence, a transition to a more sustainable building sector is necessary. Bio-based building materials are the...

SCRAPYARDS UNITED: Nesting local scrap metal cycles in a national network - ZH2050

Steel is a widely used and very circular material, it can be recycled endlessly but that consumes a lot of energy, therefore, it is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Only 2% of this pollution is caused by production, the other 98% is caused by transportation during the production and recycling process. Half of the pollution...

PLASTICITY: Shaping the transitions to a resilient and circular plastic manufacturing system

Different government bodies, from the European Union down to the Port of Rotterdam Authority have implemented the policy goal to become circular by 2050 to minimize demand and dependence on finite resources. However, a circular economy - an economic model in which materials circulate in closed loops and waste is viewed as a resource - is vastly...

TRANSTOPIA: Activating the energy transition through a synergy of landscapes

The Port of Rotterdam has always been a pivotal player in the energy sector. Predominantly, in the oil-based generation of energy and the consequent export of raw material. However, there is a need for a systemic shift in the energy sector as the Netherlands embarks toward its goal to become 100% carbon neutral by 2050. <br/>An analysis of the...

South Holland's petroleum(e)scape: a vision and strategy towards a mutualist energy landscape in 2050

In the past decades, the port of Rotterdam has been considered as one of the main engines of the Dutch national economy, since it is the largest hub for fossil fuels in Europe. The province of South-Holland and the Port of Rotterdam hereby form the heart of the economic centre of the Netherlands, contributing to 21% of the national GDP. However,...

Optimization of flood safety levels: Case study for unembanked areas in the Port of Rotterdam

Additional master thesis