The Pearl River Delta (PRD) is currently one of the world's fastest-growing city clusters. However, it has been a low-lying area with scarce land resources throughout history due to its dense population and frequent water-related hazards. The traditional agricultural system in the region was a response to these contradictions, serving as a multifunctional system that sustained the land and shaped the local society and culture over centuries.

However, with China's reform and opening up in 1978, a significant amount of agricultural land was converted into urban construction and intensive agriculture, the disappearing traditional agricultural system has led to arising social and environmental issues such as increased flood risks, environmental degradation, landscape homogenization, and the loss of cultural heritage.

This thesis focuses on the development of the remaining agricultural areas on the west side of the PRD. It emphasizes the urgent need for diverse ecosystem services to support the growing population in the face of climate extremes. In this case, an economy-dominated or monofunctional planning approach alone is insufficient to ensure sustainability. Therefore, building upon the region's agriculture-based background, the study adopts an adaptive landscape framework as an adaptation of the traditional agricultural system. By integrating the theories of landscape-based urbanism, social-ecological resilience, and ecosystem service, the landscape framework aims to facilitate sustainable development of this area in terms of production, ecology, water resilience, and living environment.

The study considers agricultural development in the PRD as a long-term process and recognizes the agricultural system as a social-ecological system. Through the learning of the development process, the agricultural area on the west side of the PRD could be divided into two main typologies: dikedfield and sandfield, and further subdivided into four landscape typologies. Together, they compose the landscape structure of the region. By analyzing and evaluating the challenge and potential associated with each typology, an overarching regional vision is proposed. Principles derived of the traditional agricultural system will serve as design guidelines, while the design exploration in Gulao Town, as a typical area representing one of the landscape typologies, will be conducted to showcase part of the regional vision and tangible social and environmental value brought to the local area.