A Sprengenbeek is a stream that has been dug or deepened to tape groundwater from the hill. Most streams were built to drive watermills in order to generate energy, but they were also built to irrigate and supply water to moats, canals, or other waterworks. The efficiency of the water mills was overruled by modern energy supplies. Therefore most of the water mills were demolished, and the Sprengenbeek gradually lost its main function. At the same time, the landscape around changed into a productive agricultural landscape, causing today's environmental problems. The connection between the landscape and the Sprengenbeek disappeared. Moreover, due to climate change, the Sprengenbeek landscape is facing droughts and flood issues. The design aims to enhance the spatial, ecological and circular quality of the Sprengenbeek landscape by a slow transformation and the creation of a series of public spaces in which the cultural-historical elements of the Sprengenbeek contribute and can be experienced. The Sprengenbeek landscape can be divided into five areas: infiltration area, upstream, midstream, urban area, and downstream. Each area has different issues and asks for different strategies in terms of sustainability, management and possibilities for the development of public spaces. The result is a diverse, sustainable, readable Sprengenbeek landscape that provides approaches and is an inspiration for areas facing similar problems.

The prevalent paradigm of development in Mumbai is defined by anthropogenic processes aimed at building more. Manifesting in the form of inland architectonic augmentations or outward reclamations into the sea, these interventions are dissociated/incongruently positioned in the territorial ecosystem. Thereby altering natural cycles, disrupting habitats, and ultimately rendering critical ecological systems spatially and functionally marginalized. The resultant instability in the territory is evident as large volumes of humans and non-humans alike are lost, set-back or displaced, by catastrophic floods, that are further exacerbate by the adapting territorial landscape. While it has been well established that in the case of Mumbai the act of accumulation is ubiquitous, and yet in this vicious cycle of overgrowth, still prevails a necessity for more growth. Acknowledging these processes of accumulation as constants, the projected is nested within the grim realities of the city, being an estuarine landscape that has been altered landscape to a point of no return. Thereby proposing to reposition the prevalent paradigm of development to be centered around acts of maintenance stemming from systems of care. Maintenance for a healthy estuarine landscape defined by its biophysical as well as functional capability to prevail as well as support and ensure the symbiotic co-existence of its human and more than human occupants. Essentially take into account the time taken for these natural acts of formation to manifest in comparison to the social processes, as it is this careful synchronization that will be essential in decentralizing the humanist perspective and yet safeguarding their livelihood against environmental uncertainties. In which case the health of the landscape will be tested by the very same hydrological cycle that shapes it.

In a context of neglect for natural resources, formerly guiding cores of cultural development and revealed in a constitution of public spaces - due to the urban and economic development in the city of Iraklion, Crete, this project aims at exploring, understanding and revealing the potentials of Yofyros river as an actor to facilitate, enhance, and connect living-with-water in the nature, the field, and the city. In Yofyros landscape human activities and environmental imbalance are inscribed, and -in terms of use and movement, seasonal interventions for flood protection, and lack of urban planning- it is a fact that the river is pressed in a “corset” made of built irrationalities. As a physical space, it does not belong nor is included in the structure and the organization of the urban tissue, and essentially, its significance, as a part that preexists and can reinforce the public space of the city, is ignored. When it overflows, it floods the city and the outskirts, claiming more space, but also damaging houses, farming, and infrastructure. As a place with cultural and symbolic role it is rejected from the urban memory. Flood events are relatively frequent, and in combination with the contemporary fast building- they displace locals and direct stakeholders living in adjacency to the river, away from the values embedded in it. Thus, this project suggests that the locals should become actively engaged and committed to the place in their everyday life and through a physical experience that promotes further interpretation and bonds with the material and immaterial heritage of the location. The landscape biography approach was drawn upon and from the discovery of existing spatial and physical elements that specify the developing relation between the locals and the river, by defining also the main authors of the landscape, and they become the main drivers of this research and the on-site analysis, in order to retrieve multifaceted meanings of the place, their in-between connections, and their potentials for further interventions. Interventions are guided through the notion of “bridge” that situates the physical landscape and its intellectual interpretation on the ground, as it, upon itself, has both spatial and symbolic meaning. Bridge as a physical structure is dealt with the incorporation of existing pedestrian bridges and the addition of new ones, emerging to connect spaces of long-term value, and derelict spaces that are newly envisioned and intervened to reinforce already operating programs by also including their surrounding, and improve environmental issues, while through the trails they form, they provide users with “new” perceptions and mental connections with the existent and its context.

The frequency of flooding events is estimated to increase in the Rhine Basin. Cities are becoming increasingly sensitive to climate change, and urban sprawl and urban population growth are bringing more and more people and areas into the risk. The thesis project is about the flooding resilience future in the lower Rhine River basin. The lack of systematic and scientific spatial planning and flood management tools has resulted in the mega region not having complex flooding issues. In addition, the natural landscape is fragmented by the urban sprawl in the past few years, and the connection of nature landscape and the value of the ecosystems needs to be utilized and demonstrated in future flood management in the face of the new paradigm. In the cross sections and different levels and countries of governance, it is important to investigate the local capacity of adaptation and transformation towards flood resilience. Nature- based solutions are thus chosen as which not only recognize the dynamics of the bio-physical systems but also activate the capacity of local conditions. Nature- based solutions not only enhance the green and blue infrastructure, but also creating added values of social benefits. By investigating the opportunity, suitability, availability and applicability of applying the nature- based solutions, the thesis try to explore a systematic approach to accelerate the transformation towards a flood resilience future in the ABC mega region by the local adaptations.

As the "rice bowl" of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta provides a large amount of agricultural products for Vietnam and the world. Over the years, the government has dramatically altered the landscape of the Mekong Delta in order to maintain existing production patterns. When production conflicts with the natural environment, governments choose to use a series of rigid water management facilities such as dykes, sluices, and wells to control and utilize the water. However, these facilities exacerbate problems such as saline intrusion and flooding, which in turn cause a decline in crop yields. As the climate changes, sea levels will gradually rise and the seasonal distribution of precipitation will become more uneven. When the government chooses to rely on these facilities to control the water system, higher dams, more sluices, and more wells will be needed, which will also further exacerbate water problems. Therefore, when people fight against water, the relationship between people and water is trapped in a vicious circle. In fact, within natural landscape systems, there is potential for mitigating water problems in their own right. At the same time, the richness of local production practices and traditional wisdom offer opportunities for change. It is therefore more sustainable for the communities living here to be aware of these potentials and to think differently, not by trying to control the water, but by making changes in themselves following the changes in the water environment. The project views the landscape as a system, integrating challenges and opportunities at all layers through layered analysis, historical analysis, and cross-scale design. The landscape approach is utilized to create a framework at a large scale within which nature is given space to fulfill its potential while providing a toolbox to guide spontaneous change by local people. By combining large-scale planning with a small-scale design, the ecological resilience of the landscape is enhanced and a new system of resilient landscapes is constructed to address problems, and even respond to climate change.

As the "rice bowl" of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta provides a large amount of agricultural products for Vietnam and the world. Over the years, the government has dramatically altered the landscape of the Mekong Delta in order to maintain existing production patterns. When production conflicts with the natural environment, governments choose to use a series of rigid water management facilities such as dykes, sluices, and wells to control and utilize the water. However, these facilities exacerbate problems such as saline intrusion and flooding, which in turn cause a decline in crop yields. As the climate changes, sea levels will gradually rise and the seasonal distribution of precipitation will become more uneven. When the government chooses to rely on these facilities to control the water system, higher dams, more sluices, and more wells will be needed, which will also further exacerbate water problems. Therefore, when people fight against water, the relationship between people and water is trapped in a vicious circle. In fact, within natural landscape systems, there is potential for mitigating water problems in their own right. At the same time, the richness of local production practices and traditional wisdom offer opportunities for change. It is therefore more sustainable for the communities living here to be aware of these potentials and to think differently, not by trying to control the water, but by making changes in themselves following the changes in the water environment. The project views the landscape as a system, integrating challenges and opportunities at all layers through layered analysis, historical analysis, and cross-scale design. The landscape approach is utilized to create a framework at a large scale within which nature is given space to fulfill its potential while providing a toolbox to guide spontaneous change by local people. By combining large-scale planning with a small-scale design, the ecological resilience of the landscape is enhanced and a new system of resilient landscapes is constructed to address problems, and even respond to climate change.