The survival and development of the city of Maastricht are facing enormous threats from the increasingly frequent and severe fluvial floods, while the leisure industry is the most vulnerable to flood damage as a crucial segment of the economy, accounting for about 50% of the total economic damage. However, flooding is essentially just a natural process with numerous ecological benefits, and can even stimulate diverse recreational activities under certain conditions.

Therefore, this report aims to explore integrated transformation from an urban design perspective for the city of Maastricht to adapt to river flooding and to promote sustainable leisure industry. It implies a transformed urban fabric that prevents the damage caused by river flooding and converts floods into a resource for sustainable leisure industry development through a series of spatial interventions and programs that cross three scales (regional scale, city scale, and neighborhood scale).
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Humans are consuming resources at a rate that the natural world can not sustain. Nations around the world are grappling with large amounts of possible interventions that can stop or at least delay the battle against environmental degradation. While we may not notice it, hard infrastructure (energy, transportation, water management and communications), have a outsized effect on the negative impact that humans have on the natural environment. It is a representation of the backbone of modern society that can both enable, and disable, our ability to transition to a more sustainable future. Directly linked to this our loss of connection with nature. Infrastructure is a critical piece of the puzzle that is the creating of a sustainable future. Thats why this project will focus on using hard infrastructure to enable us to live within the planetary boundaries in the context of South Holland in the Netherlands. An inventory of the existing infrastructure network is completed to understand the scope of the problem. Subsequently, a literature review, analysis of similar case studies and industry research was completed to understand potential solutions. Then, using the existing natural structure as a backbone, a series of green, connected and smart interventions are proposed. These interventions occur on provincial, municipal and local scales and work together to enable the human sphere and the ecosphere to exist in symbiosis.
The following is a proposal on how to achieve a sustainable, innovative, just, accessible and resilient South Holland by the year 2060 through a reimagining of the hard infrastructure system.
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