Jinchang City, as a typical resource-based city in China, has long relied on the extraction and smelting of non-ferrous metals such as nickel and cobalt, resulting in a single-industry economic structure, environmental degradation, and social fragmentation. Against the backdrop of global resource price fluctuations, climate change, and regional economic transformation, the traditional resource-dependent development path faces severe challenges. This study aims to explore a transformation pathway based on ecological restoration and sustainable development, breaking the dependency on single-resource economies and achieving economic diversification, ecological recovery, and socially inclusive development.

The research adopts Scenario Planning methodology to construct three typical future development paths: "Desert Oasis," "Industrial Revival," and "Managed Shrinkage." These three scenarios represent ecological priority, market orientation, and governance-focused transformation strategies, respectively. They are tailored to regional characteristics and social preferences, exploring feasible development pathways under future deep uncertainties.

Through the analysis of river restoration, land rehabilitation, and community revitalization strategies, the study proposes adaptive development solutions for Jinchang, including de-channelization of rivers, mixed-species planting, solar-agriculture integration, and industrial heritage reuse. Furthermore, the project emphasizes social equity during urban regeneration, promoting community participation and social inclusion to prevent social segregation and inequality during the transition process.

The findings present a more resilient and sustainable transformation model for resource-based cities, providing practical insights for policy-making and ecological restoration in similar regions.

This booklet describes the process of work carried out by a group of students within the On Site Studio of the Department of Landscape Architecture at TU Delft (Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences)in the spring of 2024. The students
have different academic backgrounds in either architecture, urbanism or landscape architecture and have been divided into dynamic sub-groups focusing on different approaches to analyse and design, but the work is the result of an effort by the group as a whole.

As the title of the studio ‘ON SITE: Scenes in Stadspark West’ suggests, this project took place in Stadspark West (SPW), a unique location in Rotterdam, however it is not an officially recognised geographical name. The initiators behind SPW refer to it as ‘an idea’ and ‘a fictional park that actually exists’.

This document is divided into three elements, the first part, Analysis and Research, deals with the embodied on-site analysis of the site and the theoretical research that underpins this analysis. The main aim of this part is to get a better grip on the multifaceted area of Stadspark West and to find better ways to describe, define, discuss and work with this area from a landscape architectural perspective. The second part of this booklet focuses on exploring and transcending the outcome of this analysis to a wider audience. In the project we achieve this goal by designing an intervention in the landscape. As the findings of our analysis have come from our first-hand embodied experiences, the aim is to present and extend these impressions from the same perspective. In the final part we use these findings to create an overall vision for Stadspark West.

Cities are responsible for a great amount of CO2 emissions related to transportation (CBS). However, the greatest amount of CO2 is caused by private transport and is mainly associated with peri-urban (the peri-urban area is a common place to live for the natural environment and also near accessibility to city facilities) and rural areas due to the lack of public transport, proximities to Services of General Interest (SGI) and access to jobs. This problem is especially evident in the cross-border regions.
When zooming in on North-West Europe, more specific issues around transport, mobility and battling CO2 arise. The European railway network, which spreads across national borders, is a patchwork filled with gaps around those national borders. Considering that a large share of the European Union’s territory consists of border regions and includes more than one-third of the EU’s population, this fact is rather alarming (European Mobility Atlas, 2021). The spatial vision and strategy presented in this report will focus on the challenge of carbon emissions caused by the transport and mobility sector with a focus on cross-border and last-mile connectivity of peri-urban areas.
The region of Maas-Rijn is used as a case study. This project explores how the region can become a place where what is not in your direct vicinity, is still within reach in the next 30 years. In saying this, the project is not only referring to physical proximity to amenities, services and (infra)structures but also to the possibility of accessing job opportunities, education, social networks, communities and other intangible resources.
Based on our analysis, the relevant trends and values are identified for a region covering three different scales: Local scale within national borders, Cross-border scale, and Multi-nation/ European scale. Key findings emphasize the role of enhancement of short-distance transport trips, the reduction of motorized vehicle use of any kind by promoting development aimed at close proximity to physical and intangible resources and promoting the use of active/ non-motorized modes of transport of any kind. More medium and long-distance/ not daily movements will be replaced by the use of sustainable alternatives, such as EVs, optimized public transport networks and smart sharing systems.