Rhine Cities - Urban Flood Integration (UFI): German and Dutch Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies

While agglomerations along the Rhine are confronted with the uncertainties of an increasing flood risk due to climate change, different programs are claiming urban river front sites. Simultaneously, urban development, flood management, as well as navigation and environmental protection are negotiating the border between the river and the urban realm. This produces complex spatial constellations between the river system and the urban realm with a diverse set of interdependencies, where programs have to synergize while adapting to dynamic water levels. Based on an expanding area at risk and the reliance on flood levels to remain within an acceptable spectrum for adaptive measures to be effective, Urban Flood Integration (UFI) involves border negotiations between the river and the urban realm where adaptation and mitigation ideally synergize. Instead of a scientific approach that reduces complexity in order to reach a verifiable question, a post-normal science approach is chosen as an evaluation and working method applied within this research. The working method relies on literature studies, semi-structured interviews and empirical research through repeated site visits. The general heterogeneity of the case studies regarding their planning structure, status and time scales, data availability and the willingness by the agencies involved to provide usable information shapes the formal research structure. Part I serves as a narrative for the case study analysis and for the final conclusions and recommendations in Part II. It is made up of three chapters, where Urban Flood Integration is framed historically, theoretically and strategically within the specific geographic context of the navigable Rhine: Anthropogenic transformations of the Rhine flood plains in the 19th and 20th century have turned formerly wide, often meandering or bifurcating river beds into urbanized embankments along straight, channelled rivers. The perception of the river changed from being dynamic to being controllable. This produced the spatial backdrop for modernist and therefore sectoral developments based on a dialectical relationship between the urban realm and the (river) landscape. Yet, as conversions of former harbours are turning sites outside the flood defence into inner city living quarters, as retention polders are positioned in flood plains with enough damage potential to threaten regional economies, and flood mitigating measures are more viable/effective on site in the middle of the city than in a rural area, site specific negotiations between simultaneous programmatic claims are producing new urban typologies/ecologies that in turn demand and rely on a new methodological approach. Within this research design is considered not only a spatial, but also a strategic tool capable of not only linking different programs, but also different disciplines. Flood Risk Management along the Rhine today combines river expanding measures and adaptive strategies with the existing defensive system to cope with the risk increase as a consequence of previous interventions and developments and fluctuations in water levels due to climate change. Differences in landscapes and urgencies and differences in planning cultures between the Upper and Lower Rhine and the Delta have also led to different strategic approaches. Within this research the innovative capacity of the adaptive and anticipatory water-based approach in the Netherlands provides lessons to be learned specifically regarding spatial quality as a strategic component of water-related projects. In Part II, the investigation of two Dutch and two German urbanized water front developments along different river segments of the Rhine according to their synergetic potential, but also regarding the temporal and spatial interdependencies between the river system as a whole, the regional context as well as the actual water front as the project site, aims to examine the following questions: Between adaptive and mitigative strategies, what is the spectrum of spatial constellations between urban development and flood management within the constraints set by navigation and a (partial) restoration of the dynamic river landscape? How are temporal and spatial interdependencies shaping these projects? Relational diagrams show the reciprocations between urban development and river dynamics of each investigated case study and the respective agencies and processes involved. The case study analysis serves as a basis for recommendations for the architectural and programmatic scope of flood-resilient projects dealing with expansive flood management strategies and respectively a strategic design approach addressing multiple scales and programs. Embedded in an exemplary atlas of the respective typology along the different Rhine segments, the four case studies from south to north are: Karlsruhe Rappenwört, a steered retention polder along the meandering Upper Rhine Mainz Zollhafen, a port conversion with flood adaptive housing along the bifurcating Upper Rhine Nijmegen Lent, a bypass and urban extension based on a dike set back along the Waal Dordrecht Stadswerven, an urban development outside the dikes in the Delta In summary, differences in landscape, threat and political structures have produced different planning cultures in Germany and the Netherlands in terms of flood management. Both Dutch and German mitigation measures remain path dependent on the defensive system. Yet, whereas the Dutch approach to flood mitigation is holistic in an extended ecological sense and specifically includes spatial quality, in Germany, planning flood-related issues remains part of a sectoral approach where spatial quality is not initially included, bit remains an additional layer towards the end of the project. Confronted with a strong ecological lobby, the focus is to restore the former alluvial forest in niches. Of the six programs defined in the ICPR Atlas, forestry seems the only one capable of taking on river dynamics and transforming accordingly over time. All other programs (settlements, industries, traffic infrastructure, and to some degree agriculture, specifically when ecological flooding is taken into account) remain reliant on defensive measures, and in case of their failure, infrastructural support and adaptation measures. They are, however, not included in a design strategy that explores potentialities. In the light of long-term strategies and programs, the Dutch approach offers a more iterative planning practice that is capable of evolving with the experience gained. Dutch experience and corresponding policy adaptation has further shown that a more permissive planning approach to allow additional programs within Room for the River measures can raise local acceptance and thus reduce negative effects. In Germany, water management agencies avoid projects that could become precedence cases and thus enable repetition. This restrictive approach is a hindrance on the way to larger-scale strategies that rely on pilot projects as testing grounds. The Dutch approach seems to aim for incentives and actually provides them, as the trade-off in the Nijmegen case shows. Moving from a restrictive to a responsive planning approach that includes incentives produces a breeding ground and should always be a central component of any strategy. One of the main findings of this research is, specifically in Germany, the limited availability of information, as well as lacking visualization layers of ongoing programs and projects (which may be an additional indication of the lacking involvement of designers in German spatial flood risk management projects). This research contributes to a broader understanding by providing an atlas of selected flood-adaptation and flood-mitigation typologies along the Rhine between Basel and Rotterdam. Directly adressing the design practice, this research proposes to move from a spatial to a strategic design approach by: -involving architects, landscape architects, urban designers from the initial stage to enable their engagement also in the strategic design of a project; -enabling design to become part of a systemic approach that aims for capacity building and therefore includes ecological, economic and cultural conditions through a transdisciplinary approach; -making the invisible layers visible: Visualize systems/expert information to make them accessible and to enable communication between disciplines; -hosting design competitions in cooperation with local stakeholders bringing people and ideas together to trigger emergence; -applying back-casting strategies to move beyond existing conceptions: design may thus becomes “telescopic” and allow a challenge of existing givens, the visualization of concepts again playing a central role. Two follow-up research projects are proposed: -Development of Design Guidelines for a river segments approach: Evaluation of ongoing or recent mitigation and adaptation projects, but also other river-related developments (e.g. navigation) in an academic research project to define potential emergent capacities between systemic and qualitative elements. In collaboration with the practice, smaller scale pilots as part of existing mitigation programs on a river segment scale could aim to substantiate the findings. -Cost-Benefit-Analysis Spatial Quality: To substantiate the qualitatively developed argument towards Urban Flood Integration (UFI), a cost-benefit analysis of a transdisciplinary layer that is comparable to the measures defined by the Dutch Quality Team for the German Room for the River, which focus today on ecological rejuvenation vs. spatial quality as a secondary aim. The final outcome of the following multiple case-study investigation and the typological atlas provided is seen to be valuable for a number of different organizations, such as governmental and educational institutions dealing with the geospecific context and spatial development along the Rhine, representatives from the building sector and venture capitalists, as well as people with a personal interest in ecological urbanism in the context of the Rhine

Rhine cities - Urban Flood Integration (UFI): German and Dutch Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies

While agglomerations along the Rhine are confronted with the uncertainties of an increasing flood risk due to climate change, different programs are claiming urban river front sites. Simultaneously, urban development, flood management, as well as navigation and environmental protection are negotiating the border between the river and the urban realm. This produces complex spatial constellations between the river system and the urban realm with a diverse set of interdependencies, where programs have to synergize while adapting to dynamic water levels. Based on an expanding area at risk and the reliance on flood levels to remain within an acceptable spectrum for adaptive measures to be effective, Urban Flood Integration (UFI) involves border negotiations between the river and the urban realm where adaptation and mitigation ideally synergize. Instead of a scientific approach that reduces complexity in order to reach a verifiable question, a post-normal science approach is chosen as an evaluation and working method applied within this research. The working method relies on literature studies, semi-structured interviews and empirical research through repeated site visits. The general heterogeneity of the case studies regarding their planning structure, status and time scales, data availability and the willingness by the agencies involved to provide usable information shapes the formal research structure. Part I serves as a narrative for the case study analysis and for the final conclusions and recommendations in Part II. It is made up of three chapters, where Urban Flood Integration is framed historically, theoretically and strategically within the specific geographic context of the navigable Rhine: Anthropogenic transformations of the Rhine flood plains in the 19th and 20th century have turned formerly wide, often meandering or bifurcating river beds into urbanized embankments along straight, channelled rivers. The perception of the river changed from being dynamic to being controllable. This produced the spatial backdrop for modernist and therefore sectoral developments based on a dialectical relationship between the urban realm and the (river) landscape. Yet, as conversions of former harbours are turning sites outside the flood defence into inner city living quarters, as retention polders are positioned in flood plains with enough damage potential to threaten regional economies, and flood mitigating measures are more viable/effective on site in the middle of the city than in a rural area, site specific negotiations between simultaneous programmatic claims are producing new urban typologies/ecologies that in turn demand and rely on a new methodological approach. Within this research design is considered not only a spatial, but also a strategic tool capable of not only linking different programs, but also different disciplines. Flood Risk Management along the Rhine today combines river expanding measures and adaptive strategies with the existing defensive system to cope with the risk increase as a consequence of previous interventions and developments and fluctuations in water levels due to climate change. Differences in landscapes and urgencies and differences in planning cultures between the Upper and Lower Rhine and the Delta have also led to different strategic approaches. Within this research the innovative capacity of the adaptive and anticipatory water-based approach in the Netherlands provides lessons to be learned specifically regarding spatial quality as a strategic component of water-related projects. In Part II, the investigation of two Dutch and two German urbanized water front developments along different river segments of the Rhine according to their synergetic potential, but also regarding the temporal and spatial interdependencies between the river system as a whole, the regional context as well as the actual water front as the project site, aims to examine the following questions: Between adaptive and mitigative strategies, what is the spectrum of spatial constellations between urban development and flood management within the constraints set by navigation and a (partial) restoration of the dynamic river landscape? How are temporal and spatial interdependencies shaping these projects? Relational diagrams show the reciprocations between urban development and river dynamics of each investigated case study and the respective agencies and processes involved. The case study analysis serves as a basis for recommendations for the architectural and programmatic scope of flood-resilient projects dealing with expansive flood management strategies and respectively a strategic design approach addressing multiple scales and programs. Embedded in an exemplary atlas of the respective typology along the different Rhine segments, the four case studies from south to north are: Karlsruhe Rappenwört, a steered retention polder along the meandering Upper Rhine Mainz Zollhafen, a port conversion with flood adaptive housing along the bifurcating Upper Rhine Nijmegen Lent, a bypass and urban extension based on a dike set back along the Waal Dordrecht Stadswerven, an urban development outside the dikes in the Delta In summary, differences in landscape, threat and political structures have produced different planning cultures in Germany and the Netherlands in terms of flood management. Both Dutch and German mitigation measures remain path dependent on the defensive system. Yet, whereas the Dutch approach to flood mitigation is holistic in an extended ecological sense and specifically includes spatial quality, in Germany, planning flood-related issues remains part of a sectoral approach where spatial quality is not initially included, bit remains an additional layer towards the end of the project. Confronted with a strong ecological lobby, the focus is to restore the former alluvial forest in niches. Of the six programs defined in the ICPR Atlas, forestry seems the only one capable of taking on river dynamics and transforming accordingly over time. All other programs (settlements, industries, traffic infrastructure, and to some degree agriculture, specifically when ecological flooding is taken into account) remain reliant on defensive measures, and in case of their failure, infrastructural support and adaptation measures. They are, however, not included in a design strategy that explores potentialities. In the light of long-term strategies and programs, the Dutch approach offers a more iterative planning practice that is capable of evolving with the experience gained. Dutch experience and corresponding policy adaptation has further shown that a more permissive planning approach to allow additional programs within Room for the River measures can raise local acceptance and thus reduce negative effects. In Germany, water management agencies avoid projects that could become precedence cases and thus enable repetition. This restrictive approach is a hindrance on the way to larger-scale strategies that rely on pilot projects as testing grounds. The Dutch approach seems to aim for incentives and actually provides them, as the trade-off in the Nijmegen case shows. Moving from a restrictive to a responsive planning approach that includes incentives produces a breeding ground and should always be a central component of any strategy. One of the main findings of this research is, specifically in Germany, the limited availability of information, as well as lacking visualization layers of ongoing programs and projects (which may be an additional indication of the lacking involvement of designers in German spatial flood risk management projects). This research contributes to a broader understanding by providing an atlas of selected flood-adaptation and flood-mitigation typologies along the Rhine between Basel and Rotterdam. Directly adressing the design practice, this research proposes to move from a spatial to a strategic design approach by involving architects, landscape architects, urban designers from the initial stage to enable their engagement also in the strategic design of a project; enabling design to become part of a systemic approach that aims for capacity building and therefore includes ecological, economic and cultural conditions through a transdisciplinary approach; making the invisible layers visible: Visualize systems/expert information to make them accessible and to enable communication between disciplines; hosting design competitions in cooperation with local stakeholders bringing people and ideas together to trigger emergence; applying back-casting strategies to move beyond existing conceptions: design may thus becomes “telescopic†and allow a challenge of existing givens, the visualization of concepts again playing a central role. Two follow-up research projects are proposed: Development of Design Guidelines for a river segments approach: Evaluation of ongoing or recent mitigation and adaptation projects, but also other river-related developments (e.g. navigation) in an academic research project to define potential emergent capacities between systemic and qualitative elements. In collaboration with the practice, smaller scale pilots as part of existing mitigation programs on a river segment scale could aim to substantiate the findings. Cost-Benefit-Analysis Spatial Quality: To substantiate the qualitatively developed argument towards Urban Flood Integration (UFI), a cost-benefit analysis of a transdisciplinary layer that is comparable to the measures defined by the Dutch Quality Team for the German Room for the River, which focus today on ecological rejuvenation vs. spatial quality as a secondary aim. The final outcome of the following multiple case-study investigation and the typological atlas provided is seen to be valuable for a number of different organizations, such as governmental and educational institutions dealing with the geospecific context and spatial development along the Rhine, representatives from the building sector and venture capitalists, as well as people with a personal interest in ecological urbanism in the context of the Rhine

Rapid configurational analysis using OSM data: towards the use of Space Syntax to orient post-disaster decision making

This paper addresses the problem of the growing exposure of contemporary cities to natural hazards by discussing the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of using the configurational approach as a framework to perform a variety of spatial analyses to better orient disaster management. It claims that enabling a quick assessment of the evolving spatial functioning of the urban grid would effectively contribute to support strategic decision-making and to make post-disaster planning decisions more explicit among stakeholders, thus boosting wider understanding and participation among the public. The paper starts with a brief review of some relevant work done by the research community to date, which highlights emergent opportunities for urban morphology studies and Space Syntax theory to trigger effective innovations in disaster management practice. Next, the paper proposes to adopt a fit-for-purpose analysis approach with the aim to achieve a higher procedural flexibility in the analysis workflow. This issue is treated with a special focus on the necessities of relief organisations which need to integrate and overlap numerous layers of information and consider the feasibility of the analysis by evaluating time and costs. The proposal considers the economy of the construction of the map to be fundamental for ensuring the feasibility of a quantitative spatial assessment in data scarce contexts such as cities affected by disasters. Moreover, it recognises that the unicity of the map is likely to enable a better communication among different stakeholders following a BIM-oriented model of cooperation, while allowing a faster response in multi-hazards scenarios. Consequently, the proposal challenges the idea of the existence of a uniquely correct way to translate reality into a model, but rather suggests using a set of simplification techniques, such as filtering, generalisation and re-modelling, on a single crowdsourced map of the urban street network to generate suitably customised graphs for subsequent analysis. This brings together two themes: the first concerns the modelling activity per se and how certain technicalities that seem minor facts can influence the final analysis output to a greater extent; the second regards the crowdsourcing of spatial data and the challenges that the use of collaborative datasets poses to the modelling tasks. In line with the most recent research trends, this paper suggests exploiting the readiness of the Open Street Map (OSM) geo-dataset and the improving computational capacities of open GIS tools such as QGIS, which has recently achieved a wider acceptance worldwide. To further speed up the analysis and increase the likeness of the configurational analysis method to be successfully deployed by a larger pool of professionals it also proposes to make use of a state-of-the-art Python library named OSMnx. In the end, the consequences of using Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), open source GIS platforms and Python scripting to perform the analysis are illustrated in a set of suitable case studies

Mixed Reality Interiors: Exploring Augmented Reality Immersive Space Planning Design Archetypes for the Creation of Interior Spatial Volume 3D User Interfaces

Augmented reality is an increasingly relevant medium of interaction and media reception with the advances in user worn or hand-held input/output technologies endowing perception of the digital nested within and reactive to the native physical. Our interior spaces are becoming the media interface and this emergence affords designers the opportunity to delve further into crafting an aesthetics for the medium. Beyond having the virtual assets and applications in correct registration with the real-world environment, critical topics are addressed such as the compositional roles of virtual and physical design features including their purpose, modulation, interaction potentials and implementation into varying indoor settings. Examining and formulating methodologies for mixed reality interior 3D UI schemes derived from the convergence of digital media and interior design disciplines comprise the scope of this design research endeavor. A holistic approach is investigated to produce a framework for augmented reality 3D user interface interiors through research and development of pattern language systems for the balanced blending of complimentary digital and physical design elements. These foundational attributes serve in the creation, organization and exploration of interactive possibilities and implications of these hybrid futuristic spatial interface layouts.M.S., Digital Media -- Drexel University, 201

Visual Techniques for Geological Fieldwork Using Mobile Devices

Visual techniques in general and 3D visualisation in particular have seen considerable adoption within the last 30 years in the geosciences and geology. Techniques such as volume visualisation, for analysing subsurface processes, and photo-coloured LiDAR point-based rendering, to digitally explore rock exposures at the earth’s surface, were applied within geology as one of the first adopting branches of science. A large amount of digital, geological surface- and volume data is nowadays available to desktop-based workflows for geological applications such as hydrocarbon reservoir exploration, groundwater modelling, CO2 sequestration and, in the future, geothermal energy planning. On the other hand, the analysis and data collection during fieldwork has yet to embrace this ”digital revolution”: sedimentary logs, geological maps and stratigraphic sketches are still captured in each geologist’s individual fieldbook, and physical rocks samples are still transported to the lab for subsequent analysis. Is this still necessary, or are there extended digital means of data collection and exploration in the field ? Are modern digital interpretation techniques accurate and intuitive enough to relevantly support fieldwork in geology and other geoscience disciplines ? This dissertation aims to address these questions and, by doing so, close the technological gap between geological fieldwork and office workflows in geology. The emergence of mobile devices and their vast array of physical sensors, combined with touch-based user interfaces, high-resolution screens and digital cameras provide a possible digital platform that can be used by field geologists. Their ubiquitous availability increases the chances to adopt digital workflows in the field without additional, expensive equipment. The use of 3D data on mobile devices in the field is furthered by the availability of 3D digital outcrop models and the increasing ease of their acquisition. This dissertation assesses the prospects of adopting 3D visual techniques and mobile devices within field geology. The research of this dissertation uses previously acquired and processed digital outcrop models in the form of textured surfaces from optical remote sensing and photogrammetry. The scientific papers in this thesis present visual techniques and algorithms to map outcrop photographs in the field directly onto the surface models. Automatic mapping allows the projection of photo interpretations of stratigraphy and sedimentary facies on the 3D textured surface while providing the domain expert with simple-touse, intuitive tools for the photo interpretation itself. The developed visual approach, combining insight from all across the computer sciences dealing with visual information, merits into the mobile device Geological Registration and Interpretation Toolset (GRIT) app, which is assessed on an outcrop analogue study of the Saltwick Formation exposed at Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK. Although being applicable to a diversity of study scenarios within petroleum geology and the geosciences, the particular target application of the visual techniques is to easily provide field-based outcrop interpretations for subsequent construction of training images for multiple point statistics reservoir modelling, as envisaged within the VOM2MPS project. Despite the success and applicability of the visual approach, numerous drawbacks and probable future extensions are discussed in the thesis based on the conducted studies. Apart from elaborating on more obvious limitations originating from the use of mobile devices and their limited computing capabilities and sensor accuracies, a major contribution of this thesis is the careful analysis of conceptual drawbacks of established procedures in modelling, representing, constructing and disseminating the available surface geometry. A more mathematically-accurate geometric description of the underlying algebraic surfaces yields improvements and future applications unaddressed within the literature of geology and the computational geosciences to this date. Also, future extensions to the visual techniques proposed in this thesis allow for expanded analysis, 3D exploration and improved geological subsurface modelling in general.publishedVersio