This graduation project presents a landscape architectural design exploration for a new estuarine landscape at the Haringvliet that incorporates the initiative Delta 21. Delta 21 is a hydraulic engineering structure located at the Haringvliet mouth, creating an energy lake and a tidal lake sea inwards. The system of Delta 21 ensures flood protection, increases the use of renewable energy, produces food and creates precious natural habitats and corridors.
The Haringvliet region has a long history of living with water. People build dikes, dams and sluices. As a result, the land is safe from floods, creating opportunities for agriculture and industry to expand. The downside is that
the damming caused strict land/water separations. The soft gradients of wet and dry, which once dominated the landscape, disappeared. Over the past decades, the landscape has become more monotone. The disappearance
of the dynamic interface and the corresponding natural processes resulted in a landscape that lost the identity of the delta.
This design exploration aims to create a sustainable estuarine landscape in harmony with ongoing natural processes that restores the gradual land-water transitions and brings back the dynamics of this delta landscape for ecology and experience. The proposed design layout is based on morphological processes along the coastline, the expansion and preservation of valuable habitats like the Hinderplaat and the re-opening of the sea -Haringvliet connection.
The design exploration shows that incorporating Delta 21 into the new estuarine landscape can restore the estuarine dynamics and experience. The new estuarine landscape creates the opportunity to add a lot of nature, such as intertidal areas, marshland, creeks and dunes and restores the brackish corridors. The circumstances in the energy lake are suitable for the production of aquaculture. Furthermore, many recreational routes through the new landscape are introduced, connecting the new cultural zones, including holiday housing, shops, restaurants, and a visitor centre.