Early Adaptation Of Water In Urban Plans: Improving water inclusivity in early development plans, like Schieoevers Noord in Delft, by bridging the gap in discourse between urban designers and civil engineers in urban water management

There is a gap in the discourse between urban designers and civil engineers, within the field of urban water management. The gap is caused by the different educational background, perspective, approach and language used in the respective fields. It causes multidisciplinary projects like the redevelopment of Schieoevers Noord in Delft to be unnecessarily difficult or inefficient. This thesis studied the effect of the gap in discourse on the redevelopment plans of Schieoevers Noord, with the aim of bridging the gap and making the plans more water inclusive. To achieve that, the area and plans were thoroughly analysed and research was done into the principles behind healthy surface water systems in the Netherlands and climate adaptation measures. Using the data from these analysis five evaluation criteria were set up. Next using the principles of water management and the climate analysis of Schieoevers Noord, four strategies for an improved water system in the area were made. The evaluation criteria helped define the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies. This made it possible to take the strong points and combine them into a final proposal for the water system in Schieoevers Noord. The proposal was also tested using the evaluation criteria and the results showed that it held up really well in all categories. The lessons learned from going through this process for Schieoevers Noord, are that bridging the gap between urban designers and civil engineers within urban water management is achievable. But it requires effort from both parties to go back and forth between the two fields, while using existing tools to ease communication. A very useful tool for this would be the Climate Resilient Cities Toolbox. With some further research into quantifying design goals this toolbox can be improved even more, and therefore become a great tool for bridging the gap between the two fields. Another important lesson learned from this research is the importance of thinking about the water system in a very early stage of the planning process. Surface water systems are often complex and adding to them will take up a large amount of space. However, a healthy surface water system is more efficient than only using climate adaptation measure, when combatting the negative externalities of climate change. Because the effects of climate change are rapidly increasing, it is imperative that developers, municipalities and other stakeholders prioritise healthy water systems in their development plans.