Delta urbanism: planning and design in urbanized deltas – comparing the Dutch delta with the Mississippi River delta

Abstract

Planning and design approaches in urbanized deltas are in a process of fundamental reconsideration. For a new approach, it is fruitful to consider the urbanized delta area as a complex, layered system, based upon complex-systems theories and layer-based methods. With this theoretical point of view, we can distinguish several development periods of urbanized deltas like the Mississippi River delta and the Dutch Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. In the current period, both deltas find themselves in a transition between the regime of the recent past and the new regime. In this transition process, the planning and design of the infrastructural system will be crucial. In order to find the most effective approach to infrastructure as a condition for urban development and water management, it will be important to develop a method of research by design, based upon strong collaboration between different disciplines such as urban design and planning, hydraulic engineering, landscape architecture, and environmental sciences.

Keywords:

• deltas
• system theories
• complexity theories
• layer approach
• research by design

Acknowledgements

The authors want to acknowledge the collaboration of the institutions who made available their images: Joan Hoal H3 Studio, Dick Sellenraad Aeroview, Gemeente Archief Rotterdam, Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, City Planning Department Rotterdam, Eo Wijers Stichting.