Rivers Atelier – Invitation to Expert Workshop

January 24, 2024, 14:00 – 16:00, Delft (TU Delft/Deltares)

In the RDD Rivers Atelier, strategic design explorations are conducted for the large Dutch rivers through design research. Over the past months, various conceptual directions for the river of the future have been determined based on historical system drivers for the development of the river area. In the next phase, future strategies will be developed for cases presented by the Delta Programme. This work will primarily be carried out in the context of graduation research in the Delta Futures Lab and the Redesigning Deltas collective.

Purpose of the Expert Workshop: Reflection on conceptual directions and establishing design tasks for river area cases

Four conceptual directions have been derived from the system drivers behind the historical development of the river area (figure). These directions contain elements recognizable in the current river system. The conceptual directions are intended as tools to view the river as a value-free study object and therefore do not yet describe explicit tasks or problem statements.

The four conceptual directions are:

River as Waterway: Focused on ensuring navigational depth and safety in the riverbed.

River as Water Machine: Focused on controlling water levels in the hinterland.

River as Free Flow: Focused on restoring natural dynamics within the floodplain.

River as Sponge Landscape: Focused on restoring natural dynamics in the entire watershed.