This thesis challenges the dominant paradigm of flood risk management in the Netherlands, which has led to rigid and technocratic landscape practices. The research reimagines flood management as a driver of socio-ecological transformation rather than a threat to be controlled. The thesis tests this approach in The Scheldt Estuary. The study investigates how deactivating existing flood defences might enable new relationships between human and non-human systems. And, how it would reshape the delta as a living and adaptive landscape. It does this through spatial analysis, design exploration and critical reflection.

Four research questions guide this exploration, addressing: - The historical and social narratives underpinning Dutch coastal management; - The projected ecological and spatial consequences of returning to Deltaic Conditions; - The potential of design to reframe flooding from a threat into a generative force; - And, the strategic pathways to foster symbiosis between human and non-human ecosystems.

Three design scenarios illustrate how different levels of engagement with tidal processes (retreat, adaptation, and cohabitation) could inform a new form of “Tidal Urbanism.” An approach that is responsive to changing conditions while remaining sensitive to deltaic contexts. This approach serves as the base for the vision . The thesis concludes with a vision for the Scheldt Estuary in 2130. It imagines a landscape that has shed human boundaries and embraced its identity as a marshland. Flood management evolves into an adaptive system of flow regulation. Coastal design becomes an act of radical co-creation, where humans and non-humans shape space together. Rather than resisting change, this vision welcomes the tide. It offers a future built not on control, but on coexistence. Transformations that would arise from this vision are explored, such as tidal reintegration, modular and delta-sensitive urbanism. The realisation of this vision demands radical changes in space as well as in governance and organisation.

Ultimately, this project reframes resilience not as the elimination of risk, but as the capacity to live with uncertainty; ethically, iteratively and collectively.

Currently, the Southwestern Delta is ill. The inability to produce its essential ecosystem services hinders the Delta from being healthy. Systems that make the Delta economy prosper are the main reasons for this obstruction. If current hazards like salinisation, soil depletion, and nitrogen pollution continue; the livelihood of the peri-urban Delta communities will be under threat. In contrast, the direct relation to the Delta makes them a potential stepping stone for change.

The main question: ‘How can local peri-urban communities be the base of the just transition towards a healthy Delta, which restores the production of ecosystem services and improves the climate resilience of the Delta?’ forms the foundation of this research. This research aims to explore the potential of communities as the missing link in the just transition towards a healthy Delta.

By creating a vision and designing its strategy, the Delta area will be able to produce its ecosystem services from 2050 on. The combination of environmental assessments, mapping and spatial analysis, stakeholder engagement, a SWOT matrix, the development of action perspectives through scenario planning, and a policy review provides the base for a vision towards a healthy Delta. This vision is translated into a strategy where a design catalogue, community engagement approach, and a knowledge network bring everything together in the spatialisation of three zoom-in areas: Schouwen-Duivenland, Oesterdijk, and Haringvliet.

Through education and recognition, the awareness of the Delta communities will rise which will motivate them to be part of the urgent transition towards a healthy Delta. Field labs and knowledge centres stimulate cooperation and sharing of knowledge. The ecosystem can be restored through the collaboration of the communities with other stakeholders. The combination of ecosystem-based adaptation, knowledge networks, and the borderless approach creates a regenerative and resilient Delta that serves as an example to other estuaries in the world.