Article by Pieter Banken
Master student Landscape Architecture
Promised as one of the most entertaining courses of the master’s in Wageningen, I enthusiastically started the course: ‘Atelier Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning’. Since my interests lie in water design projects, I chose the project Exploring the Dynamics of the Liemers to learn more about sustainable tools for mitigating the impacts of droughts and floods.
Our group report investigates the future possibilities of the Liemers and was commissioned by the water board Rijn & IJssel. The report outlines the different stakes in the area and presents inspiring opportunities for a climate-adaptive future for the Liemers, specifically regarding water and drought management. Our vision would inspire the upcoming participation process that the waterboard will conduct with stakeholders. During the first half of the project, we discussed our goals and the final products we wanted to create. In the second half, we delved into more detail and discussed the contents of those products. We outlined numerous possible opportunities presented by stakeholders to compile an overview of challenges, including those extending beyond water management.
Figure 1: Principle division of the region: Stedenband, De Oeverwallen, Het Zand en Montferland, ‘t Buffelbroek & Rijnstrangen
The Liemers region is characterized by suburban areas, agriculture, hilly forests, wetlands, and river floodplains. Its location is crucial, situated between the Randstad and the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan areas, bordering Arnhem, Doetinchem, and Germany, and close to Nijmegen. Figure 1 shows how the region was divided to create guiding principles for design.
Figure 2: Climate challenges in the Liemers
As shown in Figure 2, the Liemers will have to deal with future climate challenges in the area. One of the main challenges is drought and the associated risks to urban water quality. The region is vast and consists of various landscape types, making it a miniature version of the Netherlands. Consequently, this research can also inspire other areas of the country.
Two analyses have been conducted as shown in Figure 3: a trend analysis including a literature review and expert interviews, and a stakeholder analysis consisting of interviews that map out SWOTs. The analyses revealed significant challenges and opportunities in the Liemers and highlighted the region’s diversity. These challenges, in short, included soil subsidence from drought damaging buildings in urban areas, high groundwater levels hindering agriculture in low-lying areas, and urbanization in the urban belt. The opportunities provide a transition to sustainable agriculture, wet buffer zones, and green corridors. The challenges and opportunities have been spatially distributed to show their specific locations. A power-interest matrix was developed to illustrate each stakeholder's level of power and interest in the region.
The trend and stakeholder analysis supported the vision. The report’s recommendations are collected in the vision map, guiding principles, and zoom-ins. The vision map is more abstract, whereas the guiding principles and zoom-ins provide more detailed interventions.
Figure 5: Guiding principles
Through an iterative process, the report reflected on multiple versions of these guiding principles and improved them accordingly. The guiding principles are divided into five planning units corresponding to the region’s various landscape types. However, some principles are more social and can be applied across multiple units, not tied to any specific landscape type. A key aspect of making the guiding principles is the smart overlapping of multiple functions in the context of integrated water management and stakeholder engagement.
A few guiding principles have been further explored in zoom-ins to provide additional detail and visualize the potential implementation. As shown in Figure 6, one of the most important is the water buffer on the edge of the urban belt and lower-lying areas. This is a multifunctional band with water retention areas, recreation, and renewable energy production. The green corridors provide biodiversity and cooling effects for the adjacent urban areas.
This vision is intended to inspire and present an open-ended, interpretive set of ideas. The water board will continue to design and plan on this vision while building upon the proposed principles. These principles highlight the significance of the Liemers region and its diverse and precious landscape. The vision highlights a way to appreciate and utilize this value through water-driven, multifunctional land use, creating a climate-adaptive future landscape.
This group project provided me with insights into the collaboration between spatial planners and landscape architects. To get the most out of this Atelier course, I worked together with my group in a transdisciplinary manner. Each of us was interested in being able to experience the role of both a spatial planner and a landscape architect. Therefore, we allowed each other the opportunity to take part in or work together on subjects typical of our profession. For example, the landscape architects helped with conducting a stakeholder analysis, while the spatial planners supported the iterative design process.
Next to this, I learned from the skills of the other landscape architects in my group. I collaborated with them during the design phase of our project. I investigated the interplay between drought and flooding and designed the implementation of multifunctional infrastructure located at ‘logical’ places in the soil and water system.
Lastly, I was personally interested in transdisciplinary working together with stakeholders. I expected that collaborating with stakeholders would also improve my professional capabilities and give me insight into potential future jobs. I have conducted multiple interviews, both online and in the field.
I would like to thank my group members Anne van der Velde, Guusje Aarts, Julie Dirkx, Matthias Schupp, and Rikke ter Horst for their collaboration in this group work. While collaborating with them and our commissioner in the course ‘Atelier Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning,’ I learned a lot about the interplay between drought and flooding and the design of multifunctional infrastructure.
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