The thesis starts with the launch of two national projects in the source of yellow river, which is on top of Tibet Plateau, the most fragile and delicate ecosystem on the earth, is endangering the region. The sky river project, an external imposition that aims to turn the region into a huge landscape machine and the Nation Park plan, an internal separation that denials the indigenous relationship with their land.

My project serves as the negotiation process that gradually brings the land back to its people, respecting their traditional knowledge and engaging local cultures towards a autonomous national reserve of their own through the building of a resilient ecosystem, dynamically maintaining of its unity and actively sustaining its vibrancy that can deal with the future hydrological cycle in multi-scale.

It weaves a tale of an ambitious national environmental initiative in a century where the clarion call for sustainability rings louder than ever. It explores the intimate entanglements of indigenous communities with their ancestral lands, and grapples with the question of how they can harmoniously align with the nation’s aspirations. This narrative unfolds against the backdrop of a world in dire need of sustainable practices, as it bears witness to the profound bonds that tie indigenous peoples to their territories and deliberates on the means to synchronize these ties with the pulsating rhythm of the nation’s dreams.

Steel is a widely used and very circular material, it can be recycled endlessly but that consumes a lot of energy, therefore, it is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Only 2% of this pollution is caused by production, the other 98% is caused by transportation during the production and recycling process. Half of the pollution caused by transport is by export en import of scrap metal from and to the port of Rotterdam to Asian and African countries, this also creates geo-dependency on non-EU countries for essential materials. We will use research through design approach, quantitative (LISA data and Openstreetmap data) and qualitative methods such as research on the steel cycle, scrapyard activities, stakeholders, and social and spatial environment. The main objective is to reduce the logistic effort by closing loops more locally by creating a network of bigger and smaller hubs and reinstalling makers- and manufacturing industries around the hubs in a symbiotic relationship. Hereby we aim to move metal recycling higher up in the R-ladder of circularity. Different socio-spatial, techno-economic and governmental strategies should make scrapyards more attractive and interesting locations and intertwine them more into the urban tissue. Hereford, they should attract makers- and manufacturing industries around the scrapyards to form a symbiosis in the use of metal and scrap metal. Simultaneously, this increases dutch manufacturing and increases the local economy and decreases geo-dependency. The end of the report provides a set of strategies that can be applied to scrapyards throughout the country to improve the locations and the network between them. This project can form a precedent, both for other bigger industrial or port cities in Europe, as well as for different material flows.