This thesis investigates the practical connection between health-promoting evidence and the spatial design of blue spaces. This endeavour aims to develop instrumental resources that facilitate the integration of the health benefits of natural environments into actionable strategies, thereby augmenting the development of design research and enhancing understanding of the nature-health nexus. The research methodically examines three interrelated aspects: understanding the academic contexts and methodological preparation from the design perspective, development of qualitative and quantitative design knowledge for fulfilling health benefits of blue spaces, and applications and reflections on proposed knowledge through design workshops and interviews. Initially, the thesis outlines the relationship between blue space and health from a design perspective, identifying a significant, unexplored gap. It then proposes a methodological framework to translate health-promoting evidence of blue spaces into design knowledge for practices. Subsequently, this thesis employs interdisciplinary techniques, integrating both qualitative and quantitative approaches, to generate varied types of design knowledge, including distilling worldwide precedent cases, summarising diverse geospatial and visualisation tools, and translating site-based evidence using spatiotemporal crowdsourcing data. The effectiveness and usability of the proposed knowledge are evaluated through design workshops, complemented by expert interviews across various fields, providing insights that reflect on the research outcomes and suggest future directions. Overall, by focusing on the interactive relationship between research and design, the principal contribution of this research lies in its attempt to translate theoretical evidence from public health into practical design interventions, exploring the potential of interdisciplinary tools and methods in facilitating this process.@en

Reykjavík is a coastal city in Iceland facing growing challenges from climate change, urbanization, and overwhelmed infrastructure. Throughout this research, the primary objective is to explore the potential of a landscape-based blue-green network to enhance climate resilience and serve as a foundational element for water management, ecological inclusivity, and sustainable urban development in Reykjavík’s historical center. Research questions were formulated to provide a framework for investigating the evolution of Reykjavík’s socio-ecological system, understanding the challenges and potentials associated with current dynamics, and exploring how landscape-based approaches can address these challenges effectively and become applicable spatial design. A comprehensive methodology is employed, encompassing an extensive research and literature review on the applied theories of landscape resilience, and landscape based urbanism with focus on Reykjavík’s historical center. Nature based solutions and sponge-city principles are used as a methodological approach to develop design interventions applicable to the urban context of Reykjavík. The findings indicate that by establishing a blue-green network with integrated hydro- and ecologically inclusive design principles, in- creased climate resiliency can be attained and such network contributes to the goals of the municipal plan of Reykjavík, the ambitious goals of gaining carbon neutrality before the year 2040 in Reykjavík, as well as it complies with tightened requirements on water management for all countries in the European Economic Area (EEA). In summary, this research underscores the significance of landscape-based design approaches for increased climate resilience by establishing a green-blue structure where nature, people and urban development provide a cornerstone for Reykjavík's future resilience.

Drought resilience poses a significant challenge for the Mediterranean in today’s climate crisis, given its already semi-arid conditions. The Tagus Basin in the Iberian Peninsula is a vital water source for agricultural activities and hydropower. Despite agreements under the Albufeira Convention to share transboundary river outputs between Spain and Portugal, the accelerating impact of global climate change has intensified water source depletion during dry seasons. This strain has pushed communities to overextend resources to meet water demands. In 2022, Spain declared it would no longer fully honor its responsibilities, prioritizing its citizens’ needs due to severe water scarcity. From local community scales, to regional and territorial scales, there was a lack of understanding and collaboration between the systems of the environment, society and governance. This has led to an exacerbation of these socio-ecological issues, leaving many communities in the agricultural industry struggling to make ends meet.
This thesis explores the concept of water-landscape commons as a collaborative medium for the environment, communities, and governance, a junction where these three intersect. The design of the commons will be represented, similarly, in three layers: systems of the environment, systems of society and systems of governance. The environmental systems will define the spatial boundaries and elements of the commons, while societal systems will explore community roles in maintaining and benefiting from the commons. Finally, governance systems will outline the responsibilities of different administrative layers and the processes essential for supporting the commons’ maintenance.

The Danube river is Europe’s second largest and flows east from Germany to the Black sea through diverse foothills and plains. On the river bank of the midstream in the Vojvodina region, focus area of this thesis, the city of Novi Sad lies. As a result of agricultural practice and urban settlements in the former floodplain, the Danube river became constrained. On the left bank of the Danube at Novi Sad, a relic of the dynamic midstream river processes lies, a river island called Kamenička ada.

In the context of Novi Sad, the human impact on the river landscape is evident and has led to a polluted and partly chopped up system with cut-off floodplains. Less space is left for the riparian zone and the river channels, which means increase of flood risk. Important dynamic river processes, such as erosion, sedimentation and occasional floodings are undermined in these areas, resulting in deteriorating ecological quality and a static environment. The former characteristic braided river with multiple channels and river islands have become a rare sight.

Focus lies on tackling three main issues related to the water, the ecology and the culture: the components that form the layered landscape. The first issue is related to the unbalanced amount of fresh water, which means the flood risk and the droughts. The second focus is the loss of the typical braided system with the riparian ecological zone. At last, the relationship between the people of Novi Sad and its public space is highlighted: the disconnection between the locals and the river floodplain. Due to the complexity of ownership of public space in the Yugoslavia period, the connection is neglected.

Kamenička ada, a former river island, has the potential to mitigate these issues and become a project example for spatial development based on a landscape approach. Therefore, the aim is of this thesis is to develop a landscape-based regeneration strategy for the Danube at Novi Sad and to demonstrate the potential of a landscape approach for designing a social-ecological inclusive and flood proof island, Kamenička Ada.

The issues are tackled by using a landscape approach, which takes the landscape structure and processes as foundation for spatial development. From this approach the importance of nature based solutions are understood and applied, together with an understanding of urban and ecological resilience and the interconnections in the river system. The layers of the landscape, the water, the ecology and culture are guiding principles throughout the research.

The result of this research is an analysis and understanding of the challenges and potentials for the spatial development of Novi Sad and the translation of four spatial strategies to design principles. Secondly an application in the form of a strategic vision for the river island Kamenička ada and a reflection on the connection of the river island to the bigger context. Kamenička ada becomes an example for landscape based and resilient spatial development in the urban context of the river for the midstream of the Danube. 

The Metropolitan Region Rotterdam-The Hague (MRDH) is a new geographic region and governance entity established in 2015. The OECD's report notes that, like many metropolitan regions, MRDH's discourse on spatial planning issues is limited by rivalry among guidelines from the traditional province-municipality administrative structure. Such a dilemma can lead to uncoordinated urban development trajectory and landscape fragmentation in the future metropolization process.

This project aims to develop a landscape-based metropolitan park structure (MPS) design framework to safeguard the essential landscape values for achieving sustainable urban transformation in MRDH. Based on the understanding and diagnosis of the MRDH complex urban system, the project carries out a targeted MPS design framework, which includes principles for MRDH's long-term visions and correspondent strategies for short-term interventions. It also encompasses a robust MPS network planning map and list of strategic locations with one local scale design as an example to elaborate how the framework contributes to sustainable urban transformation in multiscale. The MPS approach, differing from traditional metropolitan models, balances ecological preservation with urban development, promoting harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. By extending green spaces and promoting slow transportation through cultural and historical routes, the MPS fosters sustainable urban transformation. Overcoming traditional governance limitations, the MPS demonstrates a holistic approach to metropolitan spatial development, balancing socio-economic and ecological goals through ecosystem services.

As a community of life on Earth, humanity's fate has always been tied to this blue planet. However, human activities continuously impact the Earth's ecology, hydrology, and geography. Since entering the industrial society, these impacts have accelerated in speed and intensity. Consequently, excessive emissions have led to rising sea levels and the exacerbation of the urban heat island effect, significantly affecting coastal cities.

Coastal cities are attractive as they offer a more moderate climate, diverse natural ecosystems, access to water for commerce ports and recreation, and an entryway to the hinterland through rivers that connect with oceans. However, as many coastal cities are in low-lying areas and prone to land subsidence, they are vulnerable to coastal flooding and will only become more vulnerable in the face of rising sea levels and more frequent storms. At the same time, rising sea levels and extreme climate changes lead to more frequent hurricanes, exacerbating the severity of urban flooding. The types of floods include areal flooding, riverine flooding, coastal flooding, and urban flooding. Floods can originate from the adjacent ocean, stormwater, or rivers.

Cities, therefore, need to adapt themselves to these changes. The answer lies within the cities themselves. This project will use Jacksonville, Florida, as a design case, addressing urban issues through the implementation of a blue-green infrastructure network. Blue-green infrastructure is a meticulous landscape strategy that can be applied to streets, houses, parks, and other areas. It slows down stormwater runoff and includes measures to protect land from flooding, provide high-quality green spaces, enhance ecological benefits, and improve urban resilience. Additionally, this project will discuss how blue-green infrastructure can strive to achieve spatial equity in American society, enhance community safety and cohesion, and address community segregation to a certain extent.

Tokyo has a long history dealing with water in the urban landscape. As early as the 6th century, canals have been dug for transport and drainage. Japanese people lived in a harmonious balance with the coastal landscape. This principle is called satoumi, ‘sato’ means people living and ‘umi’ means coastal landscape and describes a productive relationship where humans and nature benefit from the landscape. Due to heavy urbanisation, this principle has been forgotten, and Tokyo has implemented engineering solutions for their flooding problems, such as placing tetrapods in front of the coast, and reclaiming land for industry. By blocking natural processes, the risk of flooding only increased, especially in times of climate change. By studying precedence, such as case studies, this project aims to explore a design solution, using a landscape-based approach. Principles will be derived from literature research, and implemented into context by research through design, an iterative process. One strategy that emerges from this approach is the stimulation of sedimentation and erosion as a means of coastal protection. By allowing sediment to accumulate in certain areas and erode in others, we can create softer edges along the coastline that not only provide natural habitat for flora and fauna but also act as a buffer against wave energy. These places can provide opportunities for human activities such as seaweed farming, revitalising the principle of satoumi into the landscape. In the riverine landscape, softer edges mean a diversity in flow and a gradient for ecology to thrive. Humans and nature can share the landscape, there is no need for a hard border if both are treated with respect. In the urban landscape, cultural quality is increased by respecting the border of the land reclamation, visible in the urban fabric. This will be emphasized by Japanese garden elements, respecting the traditional values of Japan. It’s essential to recognize that the landscape is not something to be dominated and controlled by humans but rather a complex system that we can learn from and collaborate with. By embracing the principles of landscape-based design, which prioritize multifunctionality and the integration of human and natural processes, we can create landscapes that are not only resilient to environmental challenges but also rich in cultural and ecological significance.
This project can be an example on working with climate adaptation, cultural qualities, and ecological importance. Even so, I hope this project can be an inspiration to future generations, on how landscape can provide us the tools for a sustainable future. When enough projects take this approach, there will be lots of different outcomes, each representing a different part on the spectrum of landscape architecture. It is unreasonable to think that this project on its own will make much of a difference, but I like to think that it can spark a new approach towards climate resilience.

'Satoyama 2.0.' presents an integrated approach within landscape architecture, establishing an inclusive framework for managing river landscapes, using Japan as a paradigm. The thesis proposes the integration of ecological preservation, cultural revitalization, and urban resilience into the design and management of river ecosystems. Prioritizing sustainable principles and strategies, interventions aim to understand and respect the diverse forms of existence, both human and non-human, interconnected with the river and its natural systems.

Across research through design and design through research, this project develops and implements practices that mitigate the harmful impacts of modern development and occupation while fostering environmental management and cultural continuity. Advocating for a holistic approach that prioritizes harmony between human activities and the natural landscape, the proposition aims to promote the long-term sustainability and resilience of river landscapes, with Kameoka serving as a paradigm for these efforts.

Categorizing landscapes into headwaters, hillsides, and flatlands, and employing a layer-based analysis, this design strategy interprets the dynamic interactions between humans and nature. Utilizing controlled flooding strategies and a layered approach to sustainable riverine landscape management ‘Satoyama 2.0.’ aims to mitigate the harmful impacts of modern development while fostering environmental management and cultural continuity. Bridging tradition and sustainability through agriculture practices intertwines cultural rituals and modern conservation efforts, ensuring the preservation of the ecological and spiritual sacredness of the Satoyama forest.

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.

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) has always been one of the centers of gravity for China's economic development. Over the past few decades, the PRD has been undergoing urban development at an astonishing rate, but this development momentum has begun to wane in recent years. The development dividend initially gained from the manufacturing industry is gradually diminishing, and the whole region is facing a transformation. To meet the needs of the manufacturing industry, many rural villages have rented out their land to factories, and the living space for farmers and fishermen has been continuously reduced. Pollution brought about by the establishment of factories has also seriously affected the water system of the Pearl River, bringing about the extinction of aquatic organisms.

Not all groups of people have enjoyed the dividends of economic development in the Pearl River Delta. Especially the fishermen among the marginalized people, their living space and production sources are threatened by urban expansion. However, fishermen, as the first to settle in the Pearl River Delta and have lived on the land for thousands of years, have their unique wisdom about the land and the water system. Therefore, the project hopes to help the region achieve sustainable development from the perspective of the fishermen while ensuring their livelihoods.

The project has developed a core fishermen's habitat framework through theoretical research. Firstly, based on this framework, the project collected data and information on typical fishing villages classified the fishing villages in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), and summarized their specific elements. Secondly, the project selected one of the fishing villages for design exploration, exploring specific habitat modifications and area-specific planning strategies. Finally, the design logic implemented in the design exploration was utilized to examine the principles of the other two types of fishing villages, and a relatively feasible way of application was proposed.

Landscape has always embodied the mutual compromise between man and nature. In the past, humans have forced nature to make compromises, leading to the increasingly severe ecological degradation problems today. It is time to think differently about the relationship between man and nature, so the project hopes to help the residents of the Pearl River Delta, and nature reach a new coexistence through the means of landscape modification, which will no longer be a relationship of forcing one party to compromise, but rather a relationship of balanced development.

We live in a world of constant change, driven by human activities that have had an unprecedented impact on our planet’s geology and ecosystems, fundamentally reshaping environments worldwide. Coastal environments, with their complex land-sea, human-nature interactions, are among the most fragile and are constantly under the influence of natural and human processes. For decades, these processes moved in harmony, but as populations grew, so did the demand for resources, land and the development of infrastructure, such as dams, dikes, transport networks and coastal management interventions. The fixation of coastlines and inland systems, driven by contemporary artificial human activity, is an often unintended consequence.

The Wadden Sea Region, known for its extensive mudflats, salt marshes and diverse flora and fauna, is an example of how human intervention has had a significant impact on the form and systems of the transition zone between sea and land, or the coastal interface. Over thousands of years, the region has been shaped by the interaction of sea, land and human influences, resulting in a gradient of vital coastal habitats for numerous species and providing many ecosystem services for local and (inter)national economic prosperity. In recent decades, however, human interventions have increasingly altered the region’s coastal interface, largely disrupting the dynamic exchange of energy and materials through land reclamation and infrastructure development. The separation of land and sea has resulted in the loss of the gradual gradients that were once a defining feature of the Wadden Sea Region, along with the region’s identity of ‘living with water’. This has meant the additional loss of vital habitats and ecosystem services provided by the sea for decades, and the overall loss of socio-ecological resilience of the interface system. Now, with the increasing pressures of climate change and human needs on the complex system of the Wadden Sea region, its landscape faces serious challenges now and in the future. A new balance needs to be found between human activities and the conservation and restoration of the unique natural and cultural values of the Wadden Sea Region.

The research aims to explore the potential of a new interface framework that restores the landscape gradient between land and sea in harmony with natural processes and cultural values. The intention is to increase the overall social and ecological resilience of the interface system through the development of landscape-based design principles and design interventions, which will be tested at different temporal and spatial scales. The northern Netherlands will serve as a regional test-bed for innovative forms of production and living along the future interface, where the proposed design layout is based on analysis of coastal geomorphological processes, historical practices, landscape structures and existing water structures.

China’s rapid urbanisation and industrialisation seriously impacted rural areas, which is reflected significantly in the Greater Bay Area. With globalisation and digitalisation, the emergence of Taobao villages has become a new model for rural development in China. However, socio-economic activities entering in Taobao villages with digital technology were unguided and lacked spatial planning. Consequently, the pursuit of economic growth has resulted in the sacrifice of agricultural resources, degradation of the ecological environment, and terrible spatial quality. With the regionalisation and integration of the Greater Bay Area, the need for sustainable rural revitalisation has become urgent.

To envision future possibilities for rural development, this project introduces the concept of Smart Villages, aiming to enhance agricultural productivity and improve rural liveability. With the Dutch layer approach as the main methodology, the project understands the essential resources that support smart village development and evaluates the spatial conditions of rural areas at regional, district, and local scales. To conclude, the key design elements for Smart Villages development include agricultural agglomeration, accessible networks, and rural liveability. Based on these findings, the project proposes a potential Smart Villages development framework that serves as a guide for rural areas. A series of spatial design strategies are also presented and applied to two design cases, Xingtan in Foshan and Chikan in Jiangmen. They represent rural areas at different levels of development, showcasing scenarios of agro-industrial and eco-agricultural development respectively. It demonstrates how rural areas make use of local resources to spontaneously develop into Smart Villages, thereby reducing dependence on urban centres and contributing to the development of metropolitan regions.

The project highlights the need for a flexible approach to rural revitalisation in the digital future. By embracing the concept of Smart Villages, it advocates for sustainable agricultural practices, improving infrastructures, and enhancing the quality of life for rural communities. The proposed framework and design strategies offer valuable insights for planners, policymakers, and stakeholders seeking to foster the sustainable development of Smart Villages in a spatial perspective.

Polders in the Taihu basin have a history of over two thousand years. The low-lying topography and dense water network create convenient geographical conditions for the reclamation of polders. Later, with the rapid population growth, mulberry-dike-fish-pond was constructed in order to make full use of the limited land resources, which is a sustainable and ecological agricultural model, supporting biodiversity and water resilience as well as providing a basis for settlement in this region. The historical polder landscape closely linked the water system, agriculture system, and settlement system, and then derived water culture, rice culture, fish culture, and silk culture.

However, since1950s, the Taihu Lake basin has been under drastic urbanization, which caused a threat to water safety and cultural heritage. The city invasion of the rural area and road construction leads to the siltation of the watercourse. As a result, the polder landscape was fragmented and lost its water resilience gradually. Water crises including eutrophication, flooding, and drought become more frequent, influencing the cultivation of crops and the traditional settlement’s safety. Additionally, the region has lost its unique cultural identity as a result of the standardization of agriculture.

In conclusion, the polder landscape in Taihu basin is facing three main problems: city invasion, water safety issues, and loss of cultural heritage. Compared to the civil engineering method to solve these challenges, landscape intervention costs much less, builds up a more adaptive and resilient system, and brings aesthetic experience as well. Therefore, how to learn from historical practice to protect precious cultural heritage while restoring the water resilience in the Taihu basin through landscape approaches is the key challenge. The landscape approaches start from the base layer like soil and water, helping to create a sustainable social-ecological system as well as being flexible enough to adapt to future challenges.

The Pearl River Delta region, where the author of this project grew up, has been a source of inspiration due to the devastating impacts of natural disasters such as flooding, hurricanes, and storms on the limited freshwater resources in the area. Water is a crucial necessity for the inhabitants of the PRD, but the complexity of the water system, characterized by its structure, dynamics, and human activities, presents a formidable challenge. Despite the region's abundant rainfall and hydrological conditions, six cities in the PRD experience water poverty as a result of limited resources.
The existing centralized freshwater supply infrastructure, which relies on transporting water from rural areas to urban clusters, is unsustainable in the face of flooding, sea level rise, and salt tide intrusion. To address this issue, a resilience design framework based on the landscape as a sytem theory is necessary to promote sustainable ecosystem and urban growth. The landscape can serve as a foundation for such a system and provide a means of integrating design into contemporary urban development and transformation. By considering the landscape as a system, the freshwater supply system can act as a rechargeable battery, storing water in potential areas during wet seasons and during times of drought or salt intrusion.
The densely populated Pearl River Delta offers a significant potential for freshwater storage through its urban landscape. This project aims to explore the resilience design framework for freshwater managed recharge, and role of design in incorporating current urban development and transformation activities through urban landscape infrastructure. Through field studies, mapping, historical analysis, and flowscape analysis, the author will design a sustainable landscape system that facilitates interaction among diverse subsystems and addresses the challenge of storing and utilizing freshwater resources in high-density cities.

We live in a time of constant change and turbulence, where human activity has significantly impacted our planet. As the dominant species, we have achieved remarkable feats such as building grand cities, advancing technology, exploring the moon, and even creating artificial intelligence. However, this progress has come at a great cost to the natural world, and it is disheartening to look back at the destruction caused by our pursuit of power and advancement. We must acknowledge that this is not a game of “playing God.”

Our actions in the Anthropocene era, where humans dominate, have brought us to the brink of mass extinction for many animal and plant species. The IUCN Red List reports that around 28% of species evaluated are threatened with extinction, including those classified as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered. Some groups, like amphibians and corals, have even higher proportions of threatened species. This raises the question: how could such a supposedly intelligent civilization cause such devastation?

Given the critical state of our environment, we are reminded of the story of Noah’s Ark and humanity’s ability to preserve biodiversity and protect innocent beings. Regardless of our beliefs, this tale and its message are more relevant than ever. Can we create a modern-day ark for the 21st Century? A project with such an ambitious goal?

To achieve this mission, Project Tomorrow’s (P)ARK aims to create the most extensive national park in the North-West Europe bioregion by using the protected areas of Natura 2000 and a one-kilometre buffer zone to create an interconnected structure. This structure has been meticulously designed to harmonize with the major cities of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, permeating and spreading throughout different spatial segments. Within the scale and scope of the study, the entire project focuses on transforming a one-kilometre area surrounding national parks, where significant modifications are envisioned to create a non-invasive environment in which nature centres/bio cores can thrive while having enough space to blend with the surroundings. The aim is to let nature resonate from the inside out, and deal with landscape fragmentation. However, this critical approach requires a range of changes in agriculture, cities, infrastructure, and even the concept of our existing fragmented National Parks.

This shift towards a non-invasive environment for the coexistence of all species is explained in detail through a new agricultural structure, the concept of rewilding applied to purely wild natural areas, and the specification of larger movement corridors or smaller patches serving as habitats or migration routes for genetic biodiversity. The landscape is further complemented by a pedestrian pathway that leads from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, showcasing the beauty of nature and presenting potential future changes that can lead to restoration. Communities and policy makers are connected through the (P)ARK app, which facilitates both bottom up, and top-down initiatives that carry out a shared vision. Furthermore, an analytical tool is presented to help us to define our social foundation and planetary boundary in terms of land use.

Above all, the project aims to heal the relationship between humans and nature, fostering reflections on modern pilgrimage in the 21st century. However, this pilgrimage is no longer about seeking a deity but rather finding a way to restore our relationship with nature and reconnect with it. The result is an incredible and attractive hypothetical model of a new living environment. Through this innovative and ambitious initiative, we aim to create a haven of natural beauty and ecological preservation that will continue to inspire for generations. Although we may not be able to stop the sixth mass extinction, Project Tomorrow’s (P)ARK represents a tangible step towards safeguarding what is left.

Guangzhou is one of the most typical metropolitan cities in the Great Bay Area (GBA). The fast development contributes to massive urban construction in a relatively short time. However, the development prosperity comes at the expense of green space. The problems of green space lead to lower resilient capacity, which means higher flooding risks and more environmental problems. Under this condition, making the city more resilient, livable, eco-friendly, and sustainable becomes a public concern and a big challenge in Guangzhou.
This project proposes to design a landscape-nature network in Guangzhou, which takes into account green, blue, recreation, historical remains, and slow traffic systems. The design will use landscape approaches to strengthen urban resilience against climate change. First, the research will interpret the site from the perspective of time and space, with an understanding of historical development and the current landscape system. Then, learning from the case study of Boston Metropolitan Park and the historical wisdom of managing water and green could help to conclude principles and strategies for designing a Guangzhou Metropolitan Park. The design exploration will apply different strategies and principles on regional, meso, and local scales. The green patches inside the city will be preserved and more connections will be created. Moreover, nature and landscape areas, including green space and blue system, historical areas, recreation spots, and urban networks will be managed to co-exist with each other coherently.
The creation of a landscape-nature network will provide more benefits for the city through landscape design. It aims to create a social-ecological inclusive and futureproof Guangzhou and also has the potential to become an inspiration for other metropolitan cities.

The Paraná River is the second longest in South America and has always been a corridor for the migration of flora and fauna across the continent. In recent decades, it became one of the most important economic axes of the continent, crossing some of its most populous areas. However, in 2019, a severe drought event in the Upper Paraná River basin (UPRB) exposed the watershed's structural vulnerabilities, with water flows steadily dropping and causing uncountable economic and ecological losses.

Looking at the basin's history, the changes in land cover are the most dramatic, together with the construction of dams and their impact on the landscape. Nowadays, the UPRB corresponds to the model of the Plantation posited by Donna Haraway (Haraway et al., 2015) and explored by authors such as Malcolm Ferdinand (2021). It is a production landscape, with most of the native Atlantic Forest replaced by hectares of monoculture fields or grazing fields for meat production. Workers were brought to newly inaugurated towns, and infrastructure was planned with the goal of exporting these commodities as efficiently as possible. While lucrative, these forms of land use have minimal water retention capacity. Furthermore, there are serious sequel issues with topsoil erosion, water eutrophication, and the silting up of rivers and springs. The hydrologic cycle, originally stable, has been disrupted: all rainwater that falls during the wet season immediately runs downstream, not being retained. The Guarani Aquifer is dropping, creating serious vulnerabilities for the dry season.

This project explored how Landscape Architecture as a discipline could help regenerate the water cycle in the Upper Paraná River basin, a proper production landscape. It departs from historical analysis, geographical datasets, literature review, and a field trip. A theoretical framework defines the lens through which the problem of hydrologic disruption is seen, building upon the non-equilibrium and resilience theories (Ahern, 2011); the idea of ubiquitous wetness (Da Cunha, 2018) and, consequently, multi-species approaches (Bellacasa, 2021; Escobar, 2018); and the Casco Concept (Sijmons, 1991). The resulting goal is to build a framework of performative spaces that can withstand disturbances while providing for the human and non-human living beings in the landscape.

Such a framework is approached by a series of operative principles, design strategies, for each of the topographic categories in this landscape: headwaters, slopes, and flatlands. These principles are tested through application in a group of watersheds along the Paraná River, chosen due to their representative land use, topography and soil composition, and their easy accessibility for the field trip. The outcomes of this contextual application are a regional landscape plan, plus three zoom-ins in spaces along the same tributary of the Paraná River. The zoom-ins show how the framework of operative spaces is experienced by humans and local fauna, and how water retention features can coexist with economic and cultural activities. The main conclusion is that, if not approached from a purely technical point of view, water retention can be a leverage to enhance a landscape’s resilience and ecological value as a whole.

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) is currently one of the world's fastest-growing city clusters. However, it has been a low-lying area with scarce land resources throughout history due to its dense population and frequent water-related hazards. The traditional agricultural system in the region was a response to these contradictions, serving as a multifunctional system that sustained the land and shaped the local society and culture over centuries.

However, with China's reform and opening up in 1978, a significant amount of agricultural land was converted into urban construction and intensive agriculture, the disappearing traditional agricultural system has led to arising social and environmental issues such as increased flood risks, environmental degradation, landscape homogenization, and the loss of cultural heritage.

This thesis focuses on the development of the remaining agricultural areas on the west side of the PRD. It emphasizes the urgent need for diverse ecosystem services to support the growing population in the face of climate extremes. In this case, an economy-dominated or monofunctional planning approach alone is insufficient to ensure sustainability. Therefore, building upon the region's agriculture-based background, the study adopts an adaptive landscape framework as an adaptation of the traditional agricultural system. By integrating the theories of landscape-based urbanism, social-ecological resilience, and ecosystem service, the landscape framework aims to facilitate sustainable development of this area in terms of production, ecology, water resilience, and living environment.

The study considers agricultural development in the PRD as a long-term process and recognizes the agricultural system as a social-ecological system. Through the learning of the development process, the agricultural area on the west side of the PRD could be divided into two main typologies: dikedfield and sandfield, and further subdivided into four landscape typologies. Together, they compose the landscape structure of the region. By analyzing and evaluating the challenge and potential associated with each typology, an overarching regional vision is proposed. Principles derived of the traditional agricultural system will serve as design guidelines, while the design exploration in Gulao Town, as a typical area representing one of the landscape typologies, will be conducted to showcase part of the regional vision and tangible social and environmental value brought to the local area.

The River Nile has been a lifeline for northeastern Africa for thousands of years, supporting the growth of civilization, agriculture, and trade. The history of the Nile can be traced back to ancient times. The fertile banks of the Nile have supported the civilization of the ancient Egyptians. Since Egypt received almost no rain, the ancient Egyptians worshiped the river and considered the water from the Nile as the source of life. The Greek historian Herodotus has written, “Egypt is the gift of the Nile”. The ancient Egyptians developed ways to make perfect use of the gift of water, a complex system of irrigation to irrigate their fields to produce large amounts of crops to support the growing population. The Nile also played a crucial role in trading routes in the region, goods were transported to the Mediterranean Sea and then traded throughout the ancient world. The relationship between people and the Nile was symbiotic during these ancient times. A harmonious balance between men and nature. For five thousand years, nature has dominated the river’s constitution and functions, but from the mid-nineteenth century to today, different countries and regimes have increasingly influenced the Nile River system. Ambitious water management of big irrigation projects and the building of large dams has resulted in an imbalance in the relationship between the river, delta, sea, and people. The landscape of the Nile River Basin has changed from dynamic and natural, to a highly controlled and obstructed river.The Nile faces multiple threats, including pollution, climate change, and overuse. The highly controlling mentality is causing these threats to accelerate, and increasing the overall decline in the resilience of the basin. This graduation project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of landscape architecture design interventions in reintroducing natural dynamics in the Nile River Basin and assess their potential to enhance the basin's ecological, and socio-economic value, hydrological functioning, and overall resilience.

Sandy shores around the world suffer from coastal erosion due to land subsidence, a lack of sediment input and sea level rise. This often leads to the construction of hard structures, such as sea walls and breakwaters, that consolidate the coastal zone but disrupt the dynamic system of coastal deltas. To compensate for coastal erosion in a more natural and systemic way, sand nourishments are now increasingly executed. This so-called ‘Building with Nature’ (BwN) technique uses natural resources and dynamics to restore sediment balance within coastal zones and promote coastal regeneration and dune formation. These dynamic nourishment techniques are still in development, placing new demands on coastal spatial planning. How can we position and tune these nourishment dynamics for land formation; not only to optimize coastal safety but also to integrate these dynamics with the ecological and urban functions of the coastal landscape? An integrated design approach is necessary to guide both land-shaping processes and adaptive urban and ecological configurations to support BwN-based dune-formation following nourishment and boost the buffer capacity of coastal zones.

This research aims to develop design principles for integral coastal landscapes that connect geomorphological processes, ecology and adaptive urban design to exploit their potential for the spatial development of multi-functional coastal landscapes— shore-scapes. It focuses on coastal configurations featuring pro-active sediment management through aeolian BwN techniques to build up the coastal buffer in a natural and multifunctional way.

The first step was to reframe BwN nourishment design as a landscape approach, employing natural onshore dynamics to sustain the coastal buffer and increase the multiplicity of the coastal landscape. The coastal landscape can be regarded as the result of the interaction between the geomorphological, ecological and urban system, in response to sea level rise. The mapping of their interactions (via literature review, fieldwork, GIS and CFD-modelling), identified three potential spatial mechanisms to support nature-based dune formation following nourishment: natural succession, dune farming and urban harvesting. To activate these processes for coastal reinforcement and landscaping, and bridge the spatial and time scales involved, three subsequent tools for dynamic design were defined: morphogenesis, dynamic profiling and aeolian design principles.

In the second half of the research, the BwN landscape approach and principles were contextualized and tested across four case studies, which revealed how coastal system’s characteristics and nourishment strategy affect dune formation. Responding to various nourishment and urban conditions, spatial arrangements were composed that enhance the aeolian build-up of coastal profiles and landscapes over time, supporting dune reinforcement, multifunctionality and
landscape differentiation.

The outcome of this research is threefold. First, BwN was redefined as a landscape approach that employs intersystemic land-shaping processes to support coastal safety, multifunctionality and spatial quality. Second, a set of validated design principles was developed for natural aeolian coastal adaptation following nourishment. Third, spatial arrangements were composed to illustrate how BwN processes ashore can be guided in space and time across various nourishment and urban contexts.
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