Evaluating the impact of Room for the River flood management measures on vegetation health and diversity in the Netherlands via optical remote sensing

Recent policy initiatives in Europe emphasize a movement towards nature-based solutions in flood management; however, a quantitative relationship between specific flood management measures and indicators of ecological health and biodiversity is difficult to establish (Penning et al., 2023). In the Netherlands, several studies have been conducted...

Physical Evaluation Of The Hydrodynamic Stability Of An Eco-engineered Armouring Unit

ECOncrete®‘s Coastalock is an ecologically designed armour unit, providing an alternative and/or a complement to traditional armour layers with ecologically enhanced armouring that provides shoreline stabilization, while also creating well-defined local ecosystems that mimic natural rock pools. The 2D physical model tests performed at TU Delft...

Robotics and Autonomous Systems for Environmental Sustainability: Monitoring Terrestrial Biodiversity

Een rechtvaardiger datalandschap is in het belang van natuurbehoud

Terwijl de natuur in rap tempo verloren gaat, ontstaat tegelijkertijd een wildgroei aan data afkomstig uit de natuur. Die data worden als gemeengoed gezien waarvan iedereen, waaronder natuurbeschermers, profiteert. Er ontstaan echter nieuwe vormen van digitale uitsluiting door ongelijkheden in onderzoekscapaciteiten, databeheer en datanormen met...

Scenario Analysis for Resilient Urban Green Infrastructure

With the advancement of urbanization, the stress on the green infrastructure around the urban agglomeration has intensified, which causes severe ecological problems. The uncertainty of urban growth makes it difficult to achieve effective protection only by setting protection red lines and other rigid measures. It is of practical significance to...

Realizing Emergent Ecologies: Nature-Based Solutions from Design to Implementation

The current state of nature is concerning. The levels of biodiversity are rapidly decreasing; existing policies sketch ambitious objectives, but their effectiveness is relatively low. This is caused by a combination of three main elements: physical elements, planning processes, and psychological reasons. In dealing with these deeply rooted...

When nature noes digital: routes for responsible innovation: Routes for responsible innovation

Digitalization of biological populations and ecosystems changes our relation towards them. In silico representations of natural systems make them available as resources that allow for novel ways of deriving economic value. These extracted data and models also open novel routes for responsible innovation based on biological systems and derived...

Experiments on Flowscapes

For the last five years, graduates within the master track of Landscape Architecture at TU Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment have been working on the theme of “Flowscapes”. In the graduation guide the theme is explained as follows: “Flowscapes, explores infrastructure as a type of landscape and landscape as a type of...

Performative Microforests: Investigating the potential benefits of integrating spatial vegetation environments into buildings, in regards to the performance of buildings, their occupants + local ecosystems

The design of office buildings can substantially improve the building, social, and ecological performance of office building projects. However, existing research on improving the performance of work environments has primarily focused on identifying and evaluating methods to make work environments less bad, rather than focusing on how to develop...

Nutrient-responsive regulation determines biodiversity in a colicin-mediated bacterial community

Background: Antagonistic interactions mediated by antibiotics are strong drivers of bacterial community dynamics which shape biodiversity. Colicin production by Escherichia coli is such an interaction that governs intraspecific competition and is involved in promoting biodiversity. It is unknown how environmental cues affect regulation of the...

Scenario based learning regarding contested articulations of sustainability: The example of hydropower and Sweden's energy future

Providing electricity from renewable sources is of key importance both to reduce depletion of fossil fuels and reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses. Many of the renewable energy technologies are not ideal for electricity networks. Reservoir hydropower is one of the most ideal renewable sources as it can store energy efficiently, and can be made...

Effects of heavy metals on microbial diversity and bacterial resistance in marine sediments

In North-Western Europe alone more than 200 million cubic meters of contaminated sludge is dredged on an annual basis. Deposition of dredged harbour sediments in relatively undisturbed ecosystems is often considered a viable option, under the assumption that metals are not released into the environment. This research initially focused on the...

Scheidslijnen in het denken over natuurbeheer in Nederland: Een genealogie van vier ecologische theorien

In 1972, a number of Dutch landscape ecologists united in the Netherlands Society for Landscape Ecology (in Dutch: Werkgemeenschap Landschapsecologisch Onderzoek, WLO). They formed a theory discussion group, aimed at finding a scientific foundation for nature conservation. Scientific here meaning: to be able to predict the future, on the basis...