A Tale of Two Rivers

The thesis starts with the launch of two national projects in the source of yellow river, which is on top of Tibet Plateau, the most fragile and delicate ecosystem on the earth, is endangering the region. The sky river project, an external imposition that aims to turn the region into a huge landscape machine and the Nation Park plan, an internal...

Toward Wildfire Alternatives: Mitigating Wildfire Risk Through Landscape-Based Resilience

Wildfires are widely viewed as key evolving inputs of Mediterranean ecosystem. But anthropogenic climate changes and other socioecological recessions have transformed normal wildfire into megafire, especially under the intensifying challenges posed by agricultural abandonment and the rapid growth of tourism. So that the paradigm shift is needed...

Coal Regions in transition:: Reinventing the carbon economy

The urgent need to decarbonize the energy sector marks the beginning of a post-fossil fuel era, leading among others to a significant decrease in coal production and a corresponding shift towards energy from renewables. This transition will bring changes spatially but also socio-economically and will affect primarily coal mining communities as...

Back to the Commons: Introducing Regenerative Agricultural Networks in Northwestern Europe

For the last decades, technologies, new agricultural trade policies, environmental restrictions, high pressure through economic competition in combination with a sharp competition of land lead to the development of intensive farming. As a result, patchy landscapes have been replaced by monofunctional, homogeneous agricultural landscapes that...

Return of the industries as new green hubs: Introducing circular hydrogen landscapes for energy systems in northwest Europe

The Earth is experiencing an increase in global surface temperature due to a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly caused by the production of fossil-fuel-based energy using non-renewable resources. The heavy industries, predominantly comprising refineries, are the primary contributors to these emissions. As the primary source...

From algae to thread: A deep dive into a circular textile industry

Plastic is one of the most visibly polluting elements in our environment. From big plastic accumulation zones at sea to microplastic entering our everyday drinking water, plastic is becoming a more evident pollutant every day, which is damaging ecosystems, marine life and human health.<br/>This paper will envision a possible solution for plastic...

Agroecologies for the Stateless: The case of Murcia, Spain

Murcia, one of Spain’s autonomous communities, is located in south-eastern Spain. The region is a gigantic irrigation machine operated by farmers, cooperatives, and increasingly foreign-owned multinationals or large supermarkets that either cultivate their own land or lease from smaller plot owners. It comprises a sector that has managed to make...

Energy as a spatio-temporal project: temporalities of energy landscapes in the Rhine Basin

The relation to energy is what carries humanity through every new spatial possibility. The context of the European Green Deal that triggers decarbonisation of many industries and faster energy transition to the latest technologies of renewable energy production is only one among many past and future transitions. All in all, it brings different...

Embarking on a Circular Voyage: South Holland as the leading Creative Maritime Region through cross-pollination of Industry, Knowledge, and Society

The Netherlands has set the ambitious goal to have a fully circular economy by 2050. The Port of Rotterdam (PoR), the largest and busiest port in Europe, has strong potential to become a future circular hub. The PoR has been a major player in the seaport industry for centuries with, among others, a strong logistics sector and a robust...

Chains of Cooperation: Synergies between waste & Co2

The province of South Holland is a region in the Netherlands that can be characterized by its flourishing economy. The place where the vein of the river Maas stretches out over land and the Port of Rotterdam has settled in as a strategic trade-point. Moreover, the abundant agricultural sector in Westland holds accountable for not only multiple...

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...

Energy Habitats: Transforming the port's material landscapes through a green-blue spine

The first decades of the 21st century are defined by an expected shortage of fossil resources and an emerging climate crisis which make the transition towards renewable energy resources not only inevitable but also urgent. In the process of this transition, the Port of Rotterdam, associated with the biggest fossil fuel industry landscape in...

Petro-free mobility: A regional strategy to facilitate the mobility transition in the Province of South-Holland

Human driven pollution is causing irreversible damage to the habitability of our planet. Due to these environmental concerns, it has become imperative to move away from petrochemical dependency as this industry contributes significant greenhouse gases causing air, soil and water pollution. About 85% of the petrochemical industry that travels...

Virtual X Water: A roadway to circular construction and demolition sector in South Holland

To achieve a circular economy in South Holland by 2050, the construction and demolition sector must use resources efficiently, close materials loops and work with fewer emissions. Currently recycling building materials is already the approach. Yet, since this costs a lot of energy and results mostly in downcycling, it is not ideal as a long term...

Waste system rejuvenation: Configuring the dialogue between waste collection stations and cities in the South Holland region

At the moment, 23,5% of total waste production in the Netherlands comes from the construction sector. Therefore, in view of international agreements and the developing climate crisis, by 2050 this construction- and demolition sector should be transformed into a circular system that limits CO2 severely. It is important to bear in mind that...

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,...

Healthscapes: Meating in the middle

The future poses a major problem of feeding 9 billion people by 2050, while the current system of agriculture in itself is unsustainable and demands resources which exceed the planetary boundaries. Further continuing this trend of exploitation and destruction of ecology will only worsen the planetary stresses the Anthropocene has established....

Recipe for Resilience: For a sustainable agri-food sector in South Holland

Our modern food structure is unsustainable and fragile. Changes like climate crises, rising food demand, biodiversity loss, and the technological revolution will radicalize how and what we eat and produce. Whichever changes will happen, they will have an effect on the food system. In South Holland, this will happen with the transition to a...