Cities are pressured by the impacts of climate change (Nijs et al., 2019). Rising temperatures, wetter winters, drier summers and more extreme weather events demand a fundamental transformation of public space (KNMI, 2023). In the Netherlands, both national and municipal governments aim to achieve climate resilient cities by 2050, however, this ambition cannot be realised without the active involvement of citizens (Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat, 2023). Unfortunately, there is a lack of climate awareness and visibility of climate resilient solutions (Lenzholzer et al., 2020).
This thesis addresses this gap by connecting the concepts of climate resilience, climate awareness and art and redesigning public space to create climate-aware streets. The research develops a toolbox of visible climate resilient interventions, analysed according to spatial scale, street typologies, microclimatic processes and climate extremes. To assess how awareness can be created, the study adopts and operationalises the three awareness mechanisms, experience, engagement and knowledge, derived from Iturriza et al. (2020). These mechanisms are applied to both the climate interventions and a curated set of fifteen art installations that engage with climate related themes.
The findings are combined in a climate-aware street concept, which integrates climate resilient interventions, awareness creating strategies, and art in public space. Illustrated through an archetypical street layout, the concept demonstrates how public space can be redesigned to make climate processes visible, tangible, and collectively understood. The street design concept can be implemented on various spatial contexts by a range of stakeholders, including the municipality, artists, designers and citizens, to collaboratively advance climate-resilient urban environments.

This research introduces The Forest of the Future, a transformative visionary that reimagines European forests as multifunctional, sustainable spatial structures extending over land and sea. It confronts current environmental challenges, including deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change, by proposing an innovative spatial strategy for the BeNeLux bioregion within a broader European context. The strategy aims to integrate forestation within other land uses enhancing ecological, social, and economic values towards a sustainable future by 2100. Based on conceptual frameworking and a multi-criteria decision analysis, it evaluates current land use, soil quality, climate zones, biodiversity, and the state of marine environments, proposing new forest types and forestry-based regenerative agricultural practices. The envisioned forest network serves not just as a carbon sink but as a catalyst for biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, and community well-being.

Achieving this transition requires a multifaceted approach, including policy reform, stakeholder engagement, and the development of a strategic implementation plan that aligns with regional and European sustainability goals. This strategy requires a combination of regulating, stimulating, engaging and capacity building instruments, Additionally, the transition to a forest-based land use system requires a combination of policies tailored to ‘planting the seeds’ in the near future, launching the Future Forest, and ones ensuring the healthy maturation of those ecosystems over the following decades. The research concludes with an evaluation of potential impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, suggesting significant contributions towards Europe’s climate goals of climate neutrality.