Seoul’s waterfronts with distinct enclosed profiles provide refuge from heatwaves and mitigate damage caused by flash floods, two hazards that have recently worsened due to climate change. The aim of this study is to investigate how the morphology of these waterfronts influences climate-adaptive performances, and through this, the qualities of daily life. To address this objective, this study proposes a framework that integrates climate adaptivity analysis with data-driven design. Its analytical implementation is demonstrated on 20 waterfronts in Seoul through 7 spatial variables that assess their ability to provide refuge from heatwaves and mitigate damages from flash floods. Four types of waterfronts were identified through qualitative classification of the results: Flood-safe & high thermal performance, Flood-safe & low thermal performance, Vulnerable pedestrian network if flooded, and Likely to flood & low-moderate thermal performance. The framework’s ability to generate design variations is further tested on three waterfronts, guided by principles of daily life walkability and feasibility. Results demonstrate that integration of morphological analysis with data-driven design can produce waterfront interventions that simultaneously strengthen climate adaptivity during extreme summer events and improve daily life walkability under moderate climate. ... Read more

Over the past three decades, the regionalization of the Port of Rotterdam has decentralized functional logistics upstream, driving significant industrial waterfront expansion across inland industrial port cities (IIPCs) in the Netherlands. Concurrently, these host municipalities have experienced pronounced residential growth, precipitating acute spatial conflicts along the port-city waterfront interface. In the contemporary post-expansion era, this spatial friction necessitates an urgent re-evaluation of waterfront adaptive reuse. This thesis investigates how waterfront zones within IIPCs can be spatially optimized to cultivate a resilient port-cityscape, balancing multi-dimensional urban performance with structural adaptability toward future transitions.

Conceptually rooted in port-city interface literature and urban resilience theory, this study deploys quantitative urban morphology as its primary analytical approach, translating spatial and functional characteristics into measurable parametric indices. Executed through a multi-scalar context–assessment–design framework, port-cities are studied both as nodes on the inland waterway network at the macro-scale, and further divided into spatial units at the meso- and micro-scale, where urban waterfronts are delineated into river corridor segments. At the macro- and meso-scale, transformation potential is identified based on the development model adapted from Anyport model by Bird (1963). At the micro-scale, a typology of distinct morphological identities is established, and the types exhibiting high transformative potential are then subjected to a diagnostic urban performance framework to uncover latent structural imbalances and generate data-informed spatial strategies. Finally, these strategies are translated and demonstrated through site-specific urban design interventions.

By bridging the gap between spatial data analytics and urban design, this research establishes a structured, reproducible methodological framework. Ultimately, it contributes actionable design strategies for cultivating coherent, adaptive, and resilient port-cityscapes in post-expansion inland port territories. ... Read more

The energy transition is rapidly changing the Netherlands. For the industry, this comes with challenges, but it also creates opportunities. But what about the people living in peri-urban areas, “in the shadow of industry”? Do they experience specific disadvantages, and could they also benefit from the changes taking place around them?
Tata Steel and the IJmond region were used as a case study because here the tensions become visible. The area has heavy industry, residential neighbourhoods, ecological pressure, and a strong local identity, making it an interesting place to explore the “toxic” relationship between industry and community. To understand this relationship, the research combined street interviews, media analysis, spatial analysis, demographic analysis, literature review, and site visits. Together, these methods helped show the perspective, struggles, and dreams of the community, the residents of the peri-urban area in close proximity to large industry, and with that shape the vision and strategy.
The analysis shows that the community faces several challenges. Pollution and health concerns are evident problems in the area. Also, lower purchasing power, poorer housing conditions, and limited resources make it harder to participate in the energy transition. Mobility is fragmented, which increases car dependence. At the same time, the region is not only defined by problems. Many residents depend on industrial jobs, and the industry remains part of the local identity. This creates a situation in which people are both affected by and connected to the industry.
In this project, environmental, social, and economic interventions are formed to help residents become more aware of their energy use and support them in the energy transition. The strategy is guided by three central themes, so the perspective and voice of the community itself remains central. The themes being ‘wellbeing’, ‘chances and choices’, and ‘identity’ cover the possible concerns of the community and form the basis for the interventions formulated in the strategy. These interventions were developed into four projects, tested against a theoretical framework based on spatial justice, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the vision goals that emerged from the analysis. ... Read more

Agriculture has a long history in the Netherlands as major contributor to the national economy. Resulting from its abundance in arable land and fertile soil, its food production exceeds national borders. As the farming intensity increased, the implications of the agricultural practices quickly caught-up manifesting in the ever increasing need of space for energy, water, agricultural land. Rising energy costs, water salinization, flooding risks and drought, and the effects of the nitrogen crisis are detrimental for the farming community in the Netherlands’ south-western delta region Zeeland. Today, progressive farmers find themselves within the tensions and pressures of an on-going Polycrisis where their own personal needs and wishes of stability and security are competing with the national and regional policies accelerating the energy transition and meeting climate targets.

A community and media analysis allowed us to frame the project from the perspective of the transition community. Defining their wishes, needs and concerns highlighted a conflict between top-down expectations and bottom-up ambitions and initiatives. Complemented with a spatial analysis aided in positioning the spatial potentials of the agricultural landscape in Zeeland within the water, energy and food security nexus (WEF nexus, n.d.) and determining, therefore, its competitions.

The project addresses the research question on how can the progressive farmers in rural Zeeland act as drivers of the energy transition, while safeguarding their emotional, economic and productive stability and security, and contributing to a future-proof rural system at the intersection of energy, water, and food security, while mediating between top-down policy frameworks and bottom-up practices?

Our project reimagines the agricultural value chain based on concrete strategic and tactical actions, that aim to enable the farmer to become a producer not solely a consumer. These fall within two main goals: creating a sustainable agricultural system and decentralising the existing energy system to achieve self-sufficiency for farmers in an environmentally supportable agriculture process. Initiated by pilot projects that encourage the participation and contributions of local stakeholders, it establishes collaboration and bridges the gap between bottom-up agency and top-down guidance and support.

The societal relevance is explored through the scalability and replicability of the strategy to other regions and provinces and its contributions to spatial justice.
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When Disaster Flows examines how centuries of engineering the Rhine - Meuse delta have shaped the Rijnmond region an area that has long been central to the Netherlands’ economic vitality and cultural identity. Despite its scale, with a river basin extending over 185,260 km² across Northwestern Europe (Copernicus, 2011), the delta’s natural dynamics have been progressively constrained in favor of human safety, port expansion, and industrial development. This heavy reliance on engineered defenses has overshadowed the ecological functions that once sustained the landscape and moderated flood risks.
This research seeks to rediscover and reintegrate the delta’s natural logic as a fundamental strategy for addressing intensifying climate impacts and growing uncertainty. Through a systems-thinking approach, the study analyses the Rijnmond region using methods such as the DPSIR framework and Adaptive Pathway Planning. These tools enable a comprehensive understanding of environmental pressures, socio-spatial vulnerabilities, and long-term adaptation trajectories, ultimately proposing a renewed delta regime that aligns natural processes with future resilience. ... Read more

As a peripheral agricultural city in northeastern China, Suihua is experiencing severe population loss, having lost approximately one-third of its residents between 2010-2020. The city exhibits classic shrinking city characteristics - rapid urban decay, economic stagnation, poverty concentration, and social segregation - yet lacks effective intervention measures to address these challenges. This urgent situation demands immediate action to mitigate the spatial, economic and social impacts of depopulation. Centered on the concept of smart shrinkage, this project establishes a comprehensive framework targeting three core objectives: Social Cohesion, Urban-Rural Economic Growth, and Spatial Efficiency. Through systematic analysis, we identified four distinct typologies of shrinkage risk areas in Suihua, conducting field surveys and interviews to document spatial characteristics and user preferences for each type. These findings informed the development of four tailored intervention strategies: Urban Living Room, Super Community, Modern Creative Industry Park, and Industrial Composite Zone. The project's innovative "spatial-economic-social" tripartite response mechanism has yielded three groundbreaking contributions to China's unique "urban suburban-rural" triaxial shrinkage structure: (1) a spatial optimization model based on adaptive reuse principles; (2) an economic revitalization approach extending agricultural value chains; and (3) a culturally-grounded social stabilization strategy. These practical solutions establish a replicable governance paradigm for regions facing similar developmental challenges. ... Read more

In the face of climate change, we are confronted with both rising water levels and water scarcity almost simultaneously. These challenges have brought new attention to rivers as crucial elements in urban planning. Yet often in architectural design, rivers are treated as existing elements on site rather than actors that can express their needs in shaping the city. This research constructs a narrative of the Vistula River’s voice in Warsaw, interpreting its needs through its social and ecological significance. It explores how reimagining the river as an active participant of planning debates can inform more responsive, context-sensitive urban design and architecture.
The paper addresses the question of what it means to design with the river, rather than merely around it. It challenges the dominant paradigm, which often disregards the complexity of the environmental role of the water bodies. Instead, the research highlights the intricate relationships between water, land, and community. The emerging global movement of granting legal personhood for rivers has expanded environmental protection, especially in the Global South. The presented approach focuses on building engagement and a personal relationship between the river and people as a key step to protect riverine ecosystems.
The goal of this research was to come as close as possible to the voice of the river – what the Vistula in Warsaw would say about itself and its future. Through qualitative research methods - on-site observation, audiovisual documentation, and interviews with stakeholders connected to the river - the study generated individual narratives that were analyzed and interpreted poetically to construct a collective voice for the river.
Findings reveal that the Vistula’s voice is one rooted in biodiversity, historical identity, and inclusivity. While its interpretations differ across user groups, there are aspects that are common and can be defined as the core of the river’s voice. Vistula gives life and seeps into its surroundings, influencing the biological richness of the area that it flows through. Animals are seen as the river’s primary users, but the Vistula welcomes all living beings, and responsible human activity. Its voice advocates for unregulated flow and improved water quality, while opposing development driven by short-term economic interests. At the same time, it encourages to keep a safe distance from sensitive areas, but bring people close enough to observe nature and be willing to protect it.
The study proposes a design approach grounded in attentiveness to natural rhythms and traditional practices, such as those of the Olęder culture. By shifting perspective toward the river’s own voice, designers and policymakers can increase sensitivity to the impact that their project will potentially have. It can also help them build more sustainable, respectful relationships between urban life and the river. The methodology offers potential applications in environmental education, legal frameworks, and further research on rivers in similar contexts. ... Read more

The Rhine River, Western Europe’s most vital waterway, supports diverse economic, ecological, and cultural systems. As Europe’s busiest inland trade channel, it is critical to regional connectivity and prosperity. However, the Rhine faces unprecedented challenges due to climate-induced droughts, floods, rising sea levels, and soil subsidence. These pressures, compounded by urbanization, intensive resource use, and cross-border dependencies, threaten ecological stability, agricultural productivity, freight transport, and infrastructure resilience. By 2100, longer and hotter summers, coupled with intensified hydrological variability, are expected to exacerbate these issues, posing significant risks to urban areas, polder systems, and shared governance structures across the Netherlands and Germany.

This thesis explores how dynamic water equilibrium can be achieved through spatial, infrastructural, programmatic, and policy-based design principles, focusing on three interrelated lenses: economy, ecology, and society. By proposing adaptive freight regulation, ecological flow corridors, and socially embedded infrastructures, the research aims to rebalance water systems across scales, from transboundary coordination to regional and local interventions. Special attention is given to vulnerable transport corridors like the Gelderse Poort, which serve as testing location for scalable strategies.

Through a system of design principles with flexible interventions, the study reimagine the Rhine as both a functional infrastructure and a living cultural entity. Supported by cartographic analysis, cross-border insights, and systems thinking, this work offers a framework for climate-responsive river basin design—one that stabilizes freight movement, restores ecosystems, and reinforces the river’s identity as a shared space of resilience, memory, and flow. The findings aim to contribute to sustainable water governance, infrastructure planning, and regional cooperation, enhancing the Rhine’s role as a resilient and adaptive lifeline for Western Europe.
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Urban resilience is an evergrowing issue as cities face environmental, social and infrastructural challenges. Green infrastructure is currently being used as one of the main approaches in achieving urban resilience by providing multifunctional benefits, such as improving microclimate, enhancing biodiversity, and increasing accessibility to nature. However, through this process the evaluation and optimisation of green infrastructure at the street level remains a methodological challenge, particularly in the case of integrating multi dimensional indicators into predictive models using nature based solutions.

This study develops a machine learning based framework in order to assess and optimise green infrastructure in urban areas at a street level scale. Through the use of publicly available spatial datasets on environmental, biodiversity and morphological factors, the project constructs a comprehensive dataset incorporating factors such as urban heat islands, green infrastructure distribution, and green space accessibility.

Modelling techniques such as gradient boosting regression and random forest regression are employed as a regression technique to predict urban resilience related targets. These will provide insights into how resilient different areas of Rotterdam can be. By focusing on the study at a street level approach, this study aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of green infrastructure effectiveness at a high resolution, providing urban planners with data driven recommendations for optimising and implementing green infrastructure solutions to areas in need.

The findings of this research aim to contribute by bridging gaps in green infrastructure assessment by integrating geospatial data, network based spatial analysis, with machine learning, to assist in decision making to make urban areas more resilient. ... Read more

Amsterdam is increasingly confronted with the challenges of overtourism, where the influx of visitors exceeds the city’s capacity to accommodate them without negatively impacting liveability. This thesis addresses the urgent need for a spatial and systemic response to overtourism by exploring how spatiotemporal and morphological urban data can inform new tourism strategies. Central to the research is the development of a novel method to measure tourist pressure using publicly accessible data from Google Maps—specifically, review counts and Popular Times data. These digital traces were processed to generate a continuous, time-based pressure metric, allowing for the spatial and temporal mapping of tourism flows across the city.
The analysis identified not only when and where tourism pressure is concentrated, but also how the urban environment mediates its effects. Spatial hotspots such as the city centre, Museumplein, and Vondelpark showed consistently high pressure, particularly in the evenings and weekends. Morphological and network analyses further revealed that certain neighbourhoods, despite being well-connected or underutilised, remain largely excluded from the tourism system. Indicators such as Angular Choice (space syntax), Floor Space Index (FSI), Ground Space Index (GSI), and Mixed-use Index (MXI) were used to assess urban capacity, and a moderation analysis showed how built form characteristics influence the relationship between tourist pressure and perceived nuisance.
Building on these insights, the thesis introduces the “DeTour” strategy—a spatial corridor linking three underutilised but well-connected urban cores: Sloterdijk, Zuidas, and Bijlmer ArenA. These areas were selected based on their existing hotel infrastructure, high network capacity, and potential for spatial development without displacing residential life. The strategy reinterprets Amsterdam’s multi-core vision, offering a phased and grounded alternative that redistributes flows through a network of interconnected nodes and transitions. Spatial designs for key areas demonstrate how these interventions can enhance tourist experience while strengthening local liveability.
Ultimately, the thesis shows how integrating data science with urban design can yield actionable strategies for cities grappling with overtourism. The methodology developed is not only transparent and reproducible but also adaptable to other urban contexts, contributing both to academic discourse and to practical planning efforts aimed at creating more balanced and resilient urban environments. ... Read more

The urban river space is the area in the city surrounding a river, distinguishing itself from other parts of the city by this relationship with the water. Urban river spaces around the world are increasingly under development and being regenerated. Urban planning solutions necessitate a comprehensive overview of this space, their boundaries and their characteristics. However, the concept of the urban river space is ambiguously defined, with varying definitions across studies. This thesis addresses the need for a standardized approach through semantic urban river space delineation to facilitate cross-case analysis. Three delineation methods are proposed and applied to urban areas in the Netherlands: the first building line based on visible building nodes, the visible space derived from viewshed analysis, and the floodable area, based on 100-year flood depth data. As urban river spaces are often represented as cross-sectional segments in research, this segment is used as unit to develop a typology of urban river spaces in the Netherlands. Properties of the segment, such as elevation, landuse, vegetation, flood risk, and visibility are quantified and used as input for the k-means clustering algorithm. 10 clusters are derived, each representing a semantic type of river space, resulting in a data-driven typology that enhances the understanding of urban river spaces in the Netherlands.
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This thesis explores the future of Amsterdam and the broader metropolitan region, all deeply influenced by a rich history of water management practices. Against this backdrop, the rising challenges of climate change are increasingly threatening the Dutch delta region. Recognising the historical significance and heritage associated with Amsterdam’s water structures, this research aims to strengthen these assets to integrate a resilient water system with a strategy for sustainable heritage development in Amsterdam.
Qualitative and quantitative research have been combined to gain a better understanding of the water problems caused by climate change, enrich the understanding of contemporary cultural heritage values that are associated with the water system and look for spatial potential for urban transformation regarding water-related heritage. The integrated typology forms the basis for the design project, emphasising which design qualities can be improved in which places in the city.
In the design project, the maximisation method maximises the landscape and cultural resilience and by integrating these extremes it is intended to create the most sustainable urban plan. In parallel a pattern language will be developed that aims to generate design solutions that support the design qualities aimed for in this project.
The maximisation experiments and pattern language are combined into the integrated urban transformation plan and integrated implementation on the neighbourhood scale with two example neighbourhoods which show how different neighbourhood types can strengthen their water identity by integrating resilience water management with sustainable heritage development. Ultimately bridging past and future and creating a resilient urban environment.
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This research explores the relationship between socio-ecological resilience and spatial justice in Nouakchott, Mauritania, a city shaped by opposing climatic forces altering the landscape, rapid urbanization, deeply rooted social inequality and political uncertainty. The problematization emphasizes how climate impacts amplify existing social inequalities, both threatening the city’s existence as a habitable place and posing a challenge to the survival of especially vulnerable communities.

The study critically examines the concepts of resilience, spatial justice and indigenous knowledge through the local context, highlighting the adaptive capacity embedded within local practices. Through a diachronic spatial analysis of Nouakchott’s development, it identifies territories of persistent informality and displacement, revealing how past interventions have disrupted rather than supported vulnerable communities. In this context, resilience and vulnerability coexist, emphasizing the importance to strengthen local knowledge and to learn from the community.

Using the pattern language methodology, this research develops tools to design context-sensitive spatial strategies that combine socio-ecological resilience and spatial justice across scales. It advocates for adaptive, community-driven interventions that empower vulnerable communities, addressing environmental, social and spatial challenges in a contextually grounded design. This study demonstrates how addressing social and environmental challenges simultaneously can create unforeseen opportunities for both social equity and climate adaptability.
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The survival and development of the city of Maastricht are facing enormous threats from the increasingly frequent and severe fluvial floods, while the leisure industry is the most vulnerable to flood damage as a crucial segment of the economy, accounting for about 50% of the total economic damage. However, flooding is essentially just a natural process with numerous ecological benefits, and can even stimulate diverse recreational activities under certain conditions.

Therefore, this report aims to explore integrated transformation from an urban design perspective for the city of Maastricht to adapt to river flooding and to promote sustainable leisure industry. It implies a transformed urban fabric that prevents the damage caused by river flooding and converts floods into a resource for sustainable leisure industry development through a series of spatial interventions and programs that cross three scales (regional scale, city scale, and neighborhood scale).
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Due to global social and economic developments and the intensifying urbanization process, China's urban development is displaying a novel phenomenon of expansion and shrinkage oscillations. Cities dependent on natural resources are among those worst affected by China's urban shrinkage. Resource-based cities, which are essential to China's economic development, are facing the prominent challenge of urban shrinkage as a result of China's slowing economic growth, its homogenous industrial structure, and the industrial cycle of "boom and bust" brought on by resource depletion. In these cities, the gradual lack of urban dynamism results in the disadvantage in urban competition and attractiveness. The main challenge in these cities is figuring out how to achieve better sustainability and transformation.
The concept of "smart shrinkage" is a viable alternative to the conventional growth-oriented planning paradigm, which seeks to reverse the anticipated decline in the future. Smart shrinkage entails accepting the reality of shrinkage, developing policies in anticipation of urban population reduction, and investigating new models of urban intensive development under non-growth conditions. The potentials and transition based on the smart shrinkage idea are investigated in this thesis using Hegang as the study location. Hegang, a city on the border of northeast China, is on the list of resource-exhausted cities. Its population is declining, the city's mineral resources are nearly completely depleted, there is an excess of land and structures, and the quality of space is deteriorating. Does the idea of "smart shrinkage" make sense in the context of a municipality that is losing population with Chinese characteristics? Is local operationalization of shrinkage possible? In response to the long-term shrinking trend in the context of Hegang, this research develops a theoretical framework for smart shrinkage, suggests a strategic framework for urban recovery and resilience building, reconstructs Hegang's socio-economic and spatial dimensions, and recovers it to a resilient urban system. The results of a thorough investigation may serve as a point of reference for this particular group of cities' transformation and excellent development. ... Read more

More and more frequently, the streamflow of the Rhine becomes dangerously low. Drought is exacerbated by climate change, glaciers are melting at rapid rates. These problems affect the functions and ecosystems around the Rhine. The Rhine accounts for two-thirds of all inland waterway transports across Europe and thus experiences severe economic consequences when the streamflow gets low. Goods can no longer be shipped, and industries and agriculture depend on this water supply. More importantly, the Rhine also serves as a source of clean drinking water. With growing urbanisation, industries and agriculture along the Rhine, the pressure on the drinking water supply grows. The chances of periods of drought are increasing. Problems like salinisation, water pollution, damage to ecosystems and rising water temperatures will only become more apparent in the future.

In Every Drop Counts, the vision for the Rhine is to become a connected green-blue infrastructure. This proposal combines nature-based solutions that form a coherent system on a small scale and a green-blue infrastructure that works in a cross-border approach. Together they provide habitat diversity, mitigate drought, and human-nature interactions. The riverscape of the Rhine has to deal with more extreme fluctuations in water levels and more intense periods of drought and flooding. To battle the problems the Rhine faces, this thesis attempts to create a pattern catalogue focussing on drought-mitigating design strategies. These strategies are implemented around the Rhine to create a riverscape able to deal with streamflow fluctuations.

The design strategy will have other positive benefits besides a drought-resilient riverscape. Flooding of urbanised areas can be avoided, and living and recreational spaces will stay functional during periods of drought. Industries, agriculture and thus the economy around the Rhine will remain stable during periods of drought, as water retention capacity will be increased and buffers can be implemented.
Habitat diversity will develop and improve biodiversity. The implemented green-blue infrastructure creates a connected structure of habitats where species can flourish. Part of this strategy will be restoring historic riverscapes, creating more space for the Rhine and bringing back old habitats that got lost during the reconstruction of the Rhine.

To create a functional riverscape during streamflow drought, the Rhine will have to use all available water throughout the seasons. To mitigate the drought problems, the urban and rural areas have to create a synergy where strategies are combined, and land is optimally used to develop a drought-mitigating strategy. For this, it is essential to know what each area around the Rhine offers and what type of drought-mitigating measures are most suitable to implement.

The nature-based solutions embedded in the green-blue infrastructure are combined into a drought-mitigating pattern catalogue. This multiscalar pattern catalogue can be filtered for different types of landscapes, land uses, and more requirements. This approach is tested on other design locations and leads to a selection of measures that apply to different landscapes. By implementing the green-blue infrastructure approach with nature-based drought-mitigating solutions in rural and urban areas, a functional riverscape during streamflow drought can be created. ... Read more

Exchanges between China and Africa involving political, economic, scientific and cultural aspects have a long history and are constantly updated according to the practical needs of both sides. The high degree of complementarity has led to China-Africa deepening cooperation, which has been accompanied by the emergence of new industrial clusters, the shift in the interest of new investors, and the movement of new immigrant groups. Nevertheless, differences in historical traditions, social culture, and religious beliefs between immigrant groups and native groups, as well as the possible inequalities in economic power and international discourse between the two sides, often lead to controversial ways of cooperation and negative interactions.

According to the current mode of China-Africa capacity cooperation, industrial parks, as the main spatial carrier, have become the main platform for cooperation between China and African countries. The volume of industrial parks and the impact they bring to the host countries are no longer limited to affecting local economic development as the scale of investment continues to expand, but in most studies, such foreign co-built industrial parks are still treated as an instrument, and the focus of relevant studies is mainly on their promotion of local industrialization. As an entity with economic, social, spatial, and governance attributes that occupies a large area, has a high construction intensity, and has intensive flows of elements, the integration, and interaction between industrial parks and local cities is a direction that can be explored with many new perspectives and strategies.

So the aim of this study is, to use the China Eastern Industry Zone(EIZ) in Ethiopia as a case, to explore integrated strategies to foster regional vitalization in Dukem, Ethiopia via an incremental approach. Firstly, through literature research, mapping and comparative analysis, it is found that the impact of the Eastern Industry Zone on local urbanization and industrialization has penetrated into various aspects of socio-economic, spatial and governance. And the challenges and difficulties at the current stage are complex and intertwined. Therefore on-site surveys and questionnaires were used to analyze the demands of different local groups for the construction and operation of the Eastern Industry Zone, thus establishing the core position of this study to consider industrial park projects as an external opportunity to promote endogenous local development.

Then, based on literature research, comparative analysis and statistical analysis, the local capacity is assessed in three dimensions: spatial, socioeconomic and governance. Through scenario analysis, a vision is proposed, followed by the planning process to delve further into four cross-scale strategic action plans for industrial parks as an active medium for local vitalization. Finally, by analyzing the bottom-up spatial patterns, local activities, and stakeholders in local industrial communities in Dukem, focusing on the interaction and interface between industrial space and urban space, design guidelines for industrial communities are proposed, which is applied to the unbuilt Phase Two area of the Eastern Industry Zone for design testing. ... Read more

Golden Horn, the centrally located inlet of Bosphorus, Istanbul, used to occupy a substantial position for the industry and was perceived as a poor-quality area regarding the emergence of slum neighborhoods and the environmental pollution caused by industrialization. The 1980s marked a turning point with the deindustrialization process, where the urban regeneration of the Golden Horn waterfront was seen as a major opportunity for representing the globalizing Istanbul through culture-led attraction zones and privatization of industrial heritage facilities. Such an approach failed to establish a context with their broader urban environment and promoted gentrification and segregation and Istanbul’s identity evolved exclusively towards culture and its government to a profit-based agent of the private market through the adopted neoliberal economic policies. Rather than a structural economic change and organized urban renewal, the culture-led urban transformations through the heritage industry overshadowed the current urban urgencies such as urban poverty and limited the accessibility of the locals to heritage values.

In this direction, the research aim promotes a challenge on how the transformation of industrial heritage areas can extend beyond their cultural and historical values by (re)establishing a broader urban context while providing an emphasis on the shifting role of heritage management in urban transformation strategies. The integration with the broader urban context aims for a productive linkage with present-day values and place identity, and the anticipated urban transformation prioritizes the urgent needs of locals for socio-economic development. Through the analysis of the Golden Horn, the thesis emphasizes the transformation of the urban fabric in relation to the waterfront area, to understand the dynamics of the urban morphology and the place identity as delineated by (and with) post-industrial areas. Driven by the multi-layered study on Golden Horn, the main focus shifts toward neighborhood scale with the profound analysis and transformation of the Unkapanı Flour Mill in the Unkapanı district as an illustrative industrial heritage area characterized by urban poverty. Additionally, the analysis includes the Süleymaniye district and the world heritage site, exhibiting a multi-layered study of urban morphology, signifying an emphasis on existing problems and values, intensified through a distinctive narration with photos from the fieldwork. Furthermore, the anticipated productive transformation refers to a bottom-up approach, contextualized through components of urban integration, and design principles that are characterized by specific actions for Unkapanı’s transformation. In the end, the thesis finalizes with a brief conclusion by reflecting on the implementation of the design approach and the principles through their applicability and further developability for other industrial heritage areas along Golden Horn. ... Read more

Citizen participation is frequently mentioned in debates about our urban environment but proves difficult to be meaningful in practice. Often, participation is characterised by intransparency, poor communication and distrust. It is a loss seen the potential positive effects of influential civil participation that could help us overcome problems regarding the increasing complexity of cities. Enabling the potential and making citizen participation a valuable asset demands the extra step; full facilitation.

The research’s aim is to understand how participation needs to be facilitated to make it worthwhile. Therefore, the following research question is formulated: How can Rotterdam facilitate and structure co-creation in the built environment in an inclusive, supportive, human-oriented and meaningful way? Although the outcome of this research reaches beyond Rotterdam, will Rotterdam be used as research subject.

To answer this research question, current context and good practices are analysed. Additionally, a real-life street experiment in the Old North of Rotterdam has been conducted. The context analyses consist of the current approach of Rotterdam in facilitating participation in the city, interviews about participation with urban and architectural firms in Rotterdam, and current programmes and strategies. Relevant good practices outside of Rotterdam are analysed for valuable lessons and used as input for the design. The experiment consists of the regeneration of a street, in which the process and co-creation were vital elements. The outcome of this research consists of recommendations and a design proposal. The main recommendation for Rotterdam is to communicate more about the process and the assessment of proposals. The design proposes a next step in the appropriation of public space by residents. This appropriation is guided by design coaches connected to the municipality. Currently available, as well as newly created space, is used to demonstrate the strategic design proposal.

Conclusion; facilitating participation in urban developments is strongly connected to actively guiding and initiating processes, good communication and transparency. For the design; to keep it tangible and make people take ownership of their surroundings, process scales should not be larger than the scale of the neighbourhood. Integrating participation into society needs to be done step by step but with complete commitment. Participation is not about saving money, but rather a new way of approaching design processes.

One of the main dilemmas in participation remains not being able to attract unusual suspects. The personal door-to-door approach connected people to the process, but not as active participants. Analysing digital tools will be interesting for follow-up research in this regard. Overall, analyses of existing practices remain an interesting way to learn ... Read more

The rise in urban stresses has prompted the need for preparedness of urban areas to face precarious circumstances. Consequently, the concept of urban resilience has grown in popularity not only to tackle sudden shocks but also to face long-lasting socio-economic tensions. To implement the arrangements for resilience policy, literature suggests that social factors govern the resilience of urban areas. Communities in which the residents work together and have common goals have a stronger willingness to cooperate. To this end, social cohesion has been proven to be significant for subsistence in the event of a catastrophe. Cohesive communities protect residents against threats, care of others during hardships, and ultimately promote community resilience.


Balanced neighbourhood policies aim to strengthen the cohesion between citizens, communities, and social institutions departing from the assumption that social mix fosters social cohesion. Their goal is to increase the social mix of specific areas to avoid the clustering and segregation of disadvantaged households to, as a result, promote resilient actions. There is, however, literature that suggests that the anticipated effects are rather inconclusive and usually not achieved. Instead, balanced neighbourhood policies would promote segregation by forcing the displacement of groups of residents.


The issue arises whether balanced neighbourhoods trigger resilient actions that are pivotal in resilient communities. In other words, does neighbourhood balance increase resilient action of neighbourhood residents? We took a cross-sectional confirmatory approach to understand the social mechanism that triggers resilient action in balanced neighbourhoods based on Partial Least Squares—Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and spatial econometrics. To this end, the research tests the assumptions on which the municipality of Rotterdam grounds their Resilience Strategy's balanced neighbourhood policy, the Woonvisie, using a 2019 public survey on social development. Rotterdam's definition of a balanced neighbourhood is defined from a set of conditions for the amount of houses in different house price segments. Therefore, the tested model is based on the grounds that geographically connected people become affected by their neighbourhood's balance to promote resilient action. As such, we use the willingness to help friends and neighbours to characterise informal support as resilient action. Here we show that balanced neighbourhoods are associated with less informal support: the higher the balance, the fewer residents are willing to help their friends and neighbours.


The results indicate that social cohesion is the social mechanism that triggers help between friends and relatives and fully acts as the mechanism for resilient actions triggered by the balance in a neighbourhood. From the multiple combinations of houses in different house price segments that the definition of balanced neighbourhoods allows, we distinguish two associations. On one hand, house price distributions which foment a reduction in polarisation (more middle-priced houses) are negatively associated with social cohesion. On the other hand, balanced neighbourhoods which foment polarisation (more low- and high-priced houses) are positively associated with social cohesion. This indicates that our results are in line with Putnam’s homophily principle, i.e. ‘birds of a feather flock together’. This outcome is opposite to the policy discourse of governments in favour of balanced neighbourhoods, including the municipality of Rotterdam, that mixed neighbourhoods foster social cohesion and therefore resilient action.


The testing of the theory is complemented in two ways. First, we show that social cohesion and informal support are not constrained by administrative boundaries, so the social perceptions and actions in nearby neighbourhoods affects the level of the other neighbourhoods. Second, we found no moderating effect of factors related to the demographics and the built environment that can promote or deter social interactions, and thus are aspects of what can be considered a resilient neighbourhood.


The analysis also shows that Rotterdam's definition of balance allows multiple and dispersed combinations of the amount of houses in each price segment, which can result in counterintuitive conceptions of balance. In addition, the results show apparently contradicting results of the relationship between balance and social cohesion depending on whether the distribution foments house price polarisation. As a result, we argue that the definition is under-specified and can be misleading.


Finally, only 2.1% of the possible balance distributions yielded an acceptable goodness-of-fit of our model. This could be indicative that the model needs to be reevaluated. We found that neighbourhood ethnic heterogeneity and house type heterogeneity are directly associated to social cohesion and informal support, respectively. Future research should elaborate on the theory on which the model is grounded and create coherence to the empirical relationships identified. In contrast, the few fitting distributions could otherwise indicate that that social cohesion and informal support cannot be explained by the balance in a neighbourhood and that the policy should be reevaluated. Under this second interpretation, the study has uncovered which are the balance distributions for the city that can actually show the alleged effects of balance.


Based on these findings, a policy advice is formulated. If the objective is to increase social cohesion and resilient actions, we discourage the municipality of Rotterdam to approach this by building balanced neighbourhoods. Nevertheless, we have seen that building social cohesion is a way to build social resilience, so recently developed city programs focused on the development of neighbourhood organisations, which not only provide a space for social cohesion but also to collect and share resources directly, are a step forward from the Woonvisie. ... Read more