Go with the Flow: Dynamize the Delta

The Netherlands, renowned for its flat landscape and strategic location at the confluence of major rivers, combined with fertile soil and a mild climate, boasts optimal natural conditions for agricultural production. However, the success of the Dutch agricultural sector and its developments has significant implications for biodiversity, as...

AgriNature: Transitioning Agricultural Practices to Integrate Nature

The Netherlands holds the title of the world’s second-largest exporter of agricultural goods, primarily due to Wageningen University’s pioneering research and innovation. However, this success has led to significant challenges. Intensive farming practices have strained resources and disrupted local water and soil cycles, sparking protests from...

Hungry for change: Research on a systemic way to tackle the nitrogen crisis

The Nitrogen Crisis has become a focal point for the global community, with the related European policy stirring uncertainty in the agricultural sector. This political unrest has been clearly manifested in the Netherlands, while natural areas remain exposed to high emission levels. Society calls for systematic solutions to the nitrogen issue...

Impact of environmental changes caused by agricultural industry in Mekong Delta on accessibility to traditionally used wood types in rural Khmer vernacular housing architecture

This history thesis delves into the impact of environmental changes induced by the agricultural industry in the Mekong Delta on rural Khmer vernacular housing construction. Focusing on the accessibility to traditionally used wood species integral to the Khmer ethnic group's architectural practices, this study explores the intricate construction...

Donut Diet: Agricultural transition towards a circular, collective, and regenerative future

There is an imbalance in the nitrogen cycle, mainly caused by an increasingly intensive agricultural sector. This leads to the degradation of nature and the loss of biodiversity. Measures have been taken at European level to reduce the amount of nitrogen emitted by the agricultural sector, but this has caused a backlash as farmers in many...

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...

Aan Tafel!: Redesigning North-West Europe's food system for zero-carbon food-print

North-western European countries play an important role in the global food system, by providing 80 percent of the whole European production. The current production system is focused on profit, has a yearly emission of 1250 megatons of CO₂ equivalent in North-western Europe and produces pollutants in the soil, water, and air. This results in an...

Rooting for regeneration: Towards a sustainable food system

A transition is needed within the current agricultural sector. The intensive food production emits a significant amount of greenhouse gases, but also generates a nitrogen surplus. Consequently, biodiversity and soil quality have been decreasing dramatically in recent decades. One way of achieving a more sustainable food system is through...

From Degradation to Regeneration: Revitalizing the socio-ecological agricultural landscapes of North-West European Lowlands

The current food production and distribution system has led to extensive degradation on both the global and local scale, requiring a transformation of the vast, urbanized rural - beyond just climate-change mitigation but radical regeneration. <br/>The ongoing intensive agricultural practices have contaminated air, soil, and water, while their...

Providing water for livestock and crop production to a rural area in Bonaire using reverse osmosis

Water scarcity is a serious issue on many smaller islands, with population growth and the predicted impacts of climate change as driving factors. Bonaire is a small island located in the Caribbean Sea that has rural areas without grid connections to electricity and water. Agriculture, both livestock and hobby crop farming, in the Punta Blanku...

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...

Zeewolde: Slotstuk van een eeuw stedenbouw in de IJsselmeerpolders

Zeewolde is het jongste dorp uit de Flevopolder, desalniettemin kent het een interessante geschiedenis. Lange tijd was de stichting van het dorp, vanwege teruglopende werkgelegenheid in de landbouw, onzeker. Door Zeewolde te situeren nabij het recreatiegebied aan het Wolderwijd kon zij zowel een verzorgende rol spelen voor de agrarische...

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....

Nature inclusive Agriculture: Re-activating the fringes in the province of South Holland

The province of South Holland is one of the biggest drivers of the Dutcheconomy with almost a quarter of the gross national product earned in thisregion. The agrifood sector is the largest contributor with an annual turnover ofabout € 5.5 billion. About half of the surface of the province is dedicated to thissector, entailing many jobs and...

The Qualities of Urban Agriculture to Overcome the Urban Crises: A case study of London during urban poverty, war, and climate crisis in 20th-21st century

This thesis examines urban agriculture as a tool in city planning to overcome a different form of urban crises, such as urban poverty, war, and climate crisis. By examining those specific crises based on historical events, I define agriculture integration strategies in urban planning and their effectiveness to restructure the urban fabric to...

Landscape Based Agriculture: Towards a new circular agricultural system, a stronger ecosystem and improved liveability

Currently, the agricultural system of South Holland causes many externalities including subsidence, increased flood risks by poor water management, a loss of biodiversity, air pollution and economic problems due to the nitrogen tax. Given these problems, the following research question is chosen: can improving ecological conditions and...

Growing Smaller: Optimizing productivity within an intersectural circular system to relieve the pressure on land

The province of South-Holland is located in a delta, where the Netherlands have been changing the landscape for centuries to keep out the water and create the productive, highly urbanised and well connected landscape it is now. Due to climate change, the water system brings about an increasing pressure in both the rivers as well as the sea. In...

Project Sudarsus

Climate variability in temperature and precipitation has the potential to exacerbate the water scarcity problems already present in many parts of Sub-Saharan Sudan. A socio-hydrological study was carried out to determine the extent to which sorghum, the dominant rain-fed crop in Sudan, is susceptible to this climate variability and how this...