The Netherlands is confronted with drought more and more frequently. Two of the four climate scenarios predict that summers will become drier and extreme weather such as drought will occur longer and more often. Drought is a serious problem for multiple reasons. First of all it c
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The Netherlands is confronted with drought more and more frequently. Two of the four climate scenarios predict that summers will become drier and extreme weather such as drought will occur longer and more often. Drought is a serious problem for multiple reasons. First of all it concerns large areas. Secondly it can take long before the effects are noticeable. Finally, the longer it lasts, the longer the soil and water system needs to recover.
In the Netherlands the high sandy grounds are the most vulnerable to drought. In comparison with the low-lying peat and clay grounds, it is not possible to supplement water from the rivers. Because supply from external sources is not an option, the sandy grounds are completely dependent on rainfall which makes them more vulnerable.
Humans strengthen the water shortage during drought as a result of spatial planning and water use. The current spatial planning of the landscape and water system ensures a fast discharge during wet periods in order to prevent water nuisance or flooding. So despite the fact that the Netherlands has become averagely wetter over the years, it still faces water shortages because the water is no longer available during dry periods. Furthermore the extraction of surface and groundwater for agriculture, industries and drinkwater companies increase the water shortage further during drought.
Furthermore humans cause desiccation. Desiccation is a consistent damage to nature as a result of structural diminishing of the groundwater level in combination with a reduction of the amount of seepage in groundwater dependent nature. Desiccation is mainly the impact of the modification of the water system to fit the land use requirements’: drainage for agriculture (60%), groundwater extraction for drinking water, industry and irrigation (30%) and other factors such as the amount of pavement (10%). So for nature the effects of drought come on top of the desiccation it endures consistently, whereas the quality of nature is already declining rapidly.
The graduation thesis answers the following research question:
In what way can the landscape be used and adjusted to achieve a climate adaptive landscape for the moraine of Nijmegen and provide enrichment of the local ecosystem?
This is done on the basis of literature research, site visits, mapping, reference analyzes and designs. The research is limited to the landscape of the Nijmegen moraine. Conditions for the design is a symbiosis between multispecies
The structure of the graduation thesis is as follows. Chapter 2 describes the fascination from which the research arose. Chapter 3 then provides an explanation of the problem statement. Chapter 4 deals with the research statement. Chapter 5 deals with the methodology. Chapter 6 analyzes the Nijmegen moraine with the associated threats and values. Chapter 7 contains the design. Chapter 8 is the last chapter with the conclusion and reflection.
