Towards Resilient Delta: Integration of natural dynamics as water safety and climate adaptation measures within the urbanised delta city of Dordrecht

As the landscape of the south western river delta in the Netherlands is increasingly urbanised, the processes of urbanisation and the dynamics of nature can no longer go in their separate ways. Measures for water safety, that over the course of recent history has been diverting, regulating, and controlling natural dynamics away from the urban landscapes, need to be re-imagined to cope with the uncertainty of both natural and urban processes, as well as spatially integrated in a new resilient urbanised delta. The fundamental question is thereofore how can the two dynamics intertwined as one? How can the natural dynamics be integrated to the urban landscapes as measures of water safety and climate resiliency and generate unique landscape qualities in the urbanised delta city?This research-by-design in this thesis recognises the landscape as both palimpsest and process. It seeks understanding of past processes and the landscape’s ability to accommodate future processes and uncertainties. Using the city of Dordrecht as case study, a design for a new green and blue network with the concept of ‘living with the river’which invites the natural river dynamics to be once again be a formal component of the city. The river is therefore continously shaping and reshaping the landscape developing new ecological values and resiliency of the city.Flowscapes StudioArchitecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Landscape Architectur