Urban heat has become an increasingly severe global challenge, bringing deteriorating thermal environments and growing heat stress for urban residents. While governments worldwide are attempting to adapt, many measures have been criticised as maladaptations — producing unintended consequences or exacerbating social inequity. Nanchang, widely recognised as one of China's "furnace cities", has seen extensive planning and research at macro and meso scales, yet effective local-scale solutions remain limited. This project addresses the inequities that emerge in Nanchang's heat adaptation process.

Drawing on the Crichton Risk Triangle framework, the research first maps heat exposure and vulnerability distribution, systemic inequity is also examined in current heat risk management. To translate these findings into actionable strategies, a heat adaptive pattern language is developed through literature review, providing residents with a structured set of locally grounded design tools. A two-part co-design workshop then engages residents directly — the first part surfaces their lived experiences, knowledge gaps, and concerns, which inform a refinement of the pattern language; the second invites residents to apply these patterns in producing neighbourhood design proposals. Drawing on specialist expertise, residents' ideas are filtered and reorganised into a consolidated intervention proposal. Thermal performance is tested through ENVI-met simulation, and results feed back into further refinement of the patterns. Finally, a feasibility-effectiveness matrix is produced as a practical recommendation tool for government and community committees.

Through this iterative process of spatial analysis, participatory design, and simulation, the project develops a proposal for locally grounded strategies that contribute to more equitable heat adaptation in Nanchang. ... Read more

The ongoing energy transition in the Netherlands is a key driver for changing landscape identities. This report examines the disrupted relationship between landscape, energy, and local communities in relation to the energy transition through the case of Northern Netherlands (Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe). The study focuses on how a centralized planning approach, coupled with limited community participation, impacts the identity of the rural landscape and results in large resistance from the local community. This disconnection serves as the starting point for developing an alternative strategy—one that fosters a more just and inclusive transition.

The relationship between landscapes, energy and rural residents is analyzed using maps, literature, case studies and media analysis to gain an in-depth understanding of resistance towards centralized energy projects that go beyond NIMBYism. Core themes including public acceptance, spatial justice, participatory governance, and integrated land-use planning are explored in the report. Existing modes of bottom-up governance such as farmer and energy cooperatives are used to build an alternate model of governance for management of new energy landscapes. It follows a cooperative approach to empower citizens in the decision making of the new identity.

By coupling energy transition within local participation and sensitivity to the landscape and its identity, this report advocates for an integrated, place-based approach that enhances public acceptance and contributes to a just redefinition of landscape identity. For this, an integrated toolbox in the form of spatial principles, a catalogue and a new governance structure are presented. ... Read more