The coastline of South Florida has undergone a drastic change in the last century and this has had a major impact on flood safety and natural resources of its inhabitants. Natural coastlines supporting mangrove and wetland have been transformed into seawalls with buildings. It is estimated that in the last 100 years, 40 percent of the mangrove coast and significant parts of wetland, pine forest and sea grass have disappeared. (“Florida’s Mangroves | Florida Department of Environmental Protection”, 2019). Mangrove forests stand out to be a future- oriented way of natural coastal defense for South Florida. Although they mainly appear in calm tropical waters, they can withstand and recover from tropical storms. Their unique growth habit with a characteristic root system and branching forms a robust forest, that functions as a natural coastal defense. Also, marine life is dependent on the nursery grounds provided by the root system of the trees and maintaining a healthy fish stock (Sheppard, 2018). We can learn from the past that this forest provides the land with a natural levee and protect against flooding. Also, this natural system has potential to adapt to the consequences of climate change that highly urbanized areas like Miami are already facing and which will increase rapidly in the future. This research identifies and explores design strategies and principles for the mangrove landscape of Biscayne Bay in order to reduce the flood risk of Miami Metropolitan Area, as well as provides aesthetic, ecological and functional qualities that contributes to the identity and resilience of this coastal region. This is done through design-related-research, that divides this research in two domains. Design research, which consist of a system analysis and examination of best practices and research by design, which involves design experiments. The result is a layered landscape strategy that contributes to the harmony of the natural coastal landscape of Biscayne Bay and thereby restores its functions. The systematic strategy is converted into a spatial design, applying principles gathered from best practices. This landscape architectural design adds an extra dimension to the mangrove landscape that will invite the residents of the Miami Metropolitan Area to experience through exposure to changes and value its aesthetic and ecological qualities and protective functions.

These are challenges we have worked on with a multidisciplinary team of students from the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands and several universities in Albania. Eventually, a development strategy was made for three locations in and around the capital Tirana. This report is a landscape architectural elaboration of one of these locations: the Limuthi valley. This place has great potential given the location between the port city of Durres and Tirana. By combining technical interventions, a landscape architectonic design and a strategic cooperation proposal between residents, municipality and development organizations, flood problems in this area can be tackled.

From the 26th to the 30th April 2018 a group of students from TU Delft travelled to Albania to analyze the management of flooding events in the municipality of Tirana, Albania. The scope of the workshops organized was gaining a better insight in the
interaction between public and private parties in the interventions as a response to floods.