Agricultural Platforms

On the Potential to Manage a Transition to Sustainability in the Westland

The Westland-Oostland Greenport is a large Dutch industrial cluster that is economically, socially and culturally important. Like many industries and regions, the greenport is facing serious challenges as a result of globalisation, energy supplies, and greenhouse gas emissions. These challenges can be understood as sustainability issues that...

Horticulture water purification system: Design of a water purification system for the horticultural industry

Water is one of the primary demands for plant growth. The quality and quantity of produce are also directly linked to the nutritional value of the water. But with every system that water passes through, the environment acts upon it, changing its composition along the way. Within horticulture it all comes down to control of the growing...

Planning the horticultural sector: Managing greenhouse sprawl in the Netherlands

Greenhouses are a typical example of peri-urban land-use, a phenomenon that many planning systems find difficult to address as it mixes agricultural identity with urban appearance. Despite its urban appearance, greenhouse development often manages to evade urban containment policies. But a ban on greenhouse development might well result in under...

Floriade 2012: Event review

Review of the once-a-decade extravaganza, Horticultural World Expo Floriade.

Horticulture water disinfection unit

Report on the design of a horticulture water disinfection unit.

Diffusion of combined heat and power in Dutch greenhouses: A case study

This report presents the case study of the rapid diffusion of combined heat and power (CHP) units in the Dutch greenhouse horticulture in the period 2003-2009. The aim of the case study is to find explanations for this particular transition, and to generalize on the nature of technology diffusion processes. The study is carried out by means of a...

Innovativeness of Innovation: A study on the effects of social institutions on innovation practices in the Westland horticulture sector

The Master's programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. The horticulture sector in the Netherlands is facing economic difficulties, which have become more severe since the crisis of 2008. The innovation strategies the growers select to stimulate their organizations, are identified...

Growing with the grower: Developing a mid segment solution for Priva's horticulture business

Within horticulture, Priva is serving the top of the market with high quality, reliable, but also expensive solutions for process automation. Below this top of the pyramid, there is a big market that has a lot of potential. It is called the mid segment and requires cheaper and more basic solutions for automation. It has a lot of opportunities...

Green Keys: How sustainable principles regenerate the Westland spatially

The Westland is an area where the experience, resilience and usability are under pressure. This research and plan aims for changing the Westland mainly by focussing on renewal of glass-houses and the solution of environmental problems such as water storage and water quality. By the use of routes and the linking of a renewing programme along...

Visualization and interaction of horticulture productivity data

As part of my graduation project of the Master Design For Interaction at the TU Delft I accepted a design assignment for the Workplace automation (WPA) division at Priva in De Lier. WPA concerns the registration and management of all labour and production data in greenhouses. Priva recently started a project to refresh their software offerings...

The Dream Greenhouse for Chinese Growers

The original goal of this project is to design a win-win solution: boosting Chinese growers’ businesses, by matching their needs with Dutch know-how, then naturally establishing potential market in China for Dutch horticulture technology companies, for instance, Codema. After early research and 2-month field research, the researcher discovered...

Technology diffusion in the Westland: An informed Agent Based approach

Julia Kasmire is writing her PhD dissertation on technology transitions in the Westland greenhouse area. She is looking whether Universal Darwinism (UD) can explain these processes and could lead to could policy recommendations. As a prelude to her research this report focuses on, the less ground braking, technology diffusion in the Westland...

Haalbaarheidsstudie drijvende kassen: Samenvatting, resultaten