RE-PEAT: Different Futures for the Peat Polders as Social-ecological Landscape in the Netherlands
This project addresses the challenging question of how to reconcile better the prevention of further peatland degradation and future settlement development. Against the background of climate change and the advanced degradation of the peat polder landscapes, this question is highly topical and relevant.The project demonstrates a framework for mitigating harmful environmental and social impacts of peatland drainage and designing these areas by transforming them into a social-ecological landscape.
Regional
Netherlands
North Holland
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
This project addresses the challenging question of how to reconcile better the prevention of further peatland degradation and future settlement development. Against the background of climate change and the advanced degradation of the polder landscapes, this question is highly topical and relevant. The project examines the restoration and design strategies for peat polders in the Netherlands, as well as their unique ecological, historical, economic, and cultural role. The strategies are demonstrated using the example of the settlement area on peat soil in De Rijp village, North Holland. This area is currently confronted with the issues of rapid urbanization and gradual subsidence. The connections between peatland and settlement, as well as between social and ecological systems in general, are examined. Finally, it zooms into a new typology of living on peat polders. Overall, this thesis demonstrates a framework for mitigating negative environmental and social impacts and designing drained suburban peatlands in the Netherlands by transforming them into a social-ecological landscape.
peatlands restoration
subsidence- and climate- resistant design strategies
new typology of living together with nature
mitigate harmful environmental and social impacts of peatland drainage
integrating human and nature, architecture and landscape
The project results in a design plan with significantly reduced CO2 emissions, increased biodiversity and spatial experiential value, and a high income for farmers. Additionally, renewed peat growth can stop centuries of subsidence caused by agricultural use. A thick peat package retains rainwater, preventing subsidence
and effectively sequestering carbon. In this landscape, it is possible to strengthen and extend the social network by giving lectures and workshops in the peat learning community centre. This encourages the establishment of an institution to promote social learning and the integration of social-ecological knowledge. Additionally, it is possible to enhance the ecological network by increasing biodiversity and producing sphagnum fragments that will be used as donor plants to propagate Sphagnum moss in peat bogs that are no longer harvested. Economically, the area will become more profitable as new sources of income emerge, such as peat moss production for orchid potting soil, a camping area, housing, and CO2 compensation for developing peat moss nature. Harmonious coexistence between residents and species of the peat polder landscape, as well as a sense of connection and involvement of people to the landscape, are significant considerations. Instead of fighting wet peatlands, we should embrace them as a future cohabitation place. The social-ecological landscape has a long-term positive impact on biodiversity and ecosystem services, which are the benefits provided by ecosystems to humans.
Varied senses are encountered while moving through landscapes along the path, with different views, sounds, scents, temperature, light and shade blended into the journey experience. Elements with different functions were designed to avoid monotony and peat stations for landscape water system to foster further symbolism linked to the past and culture. The path is located on the ridge for peat moss growing, and partly it is a wooden deck path. Therefore, this path tells a story through its design form. The ridge path encloses and defines different landscapes, for example, walking between peat moss nature or reedland and extensive agriculture. Landscape and architecture interaction presents the possibility of a new relationship between people and nature in which people are actively involved with nature. Peat polders have demonstrated to be a perfect place where we can learn, understand, and hear other species and ecosystems that we have muted.
The case study project is a car-free district that can be reached by boat, bicycle, foot, or bus. The car garages are placed on both sides of the district for convenient access. The main road is pedestrian, which is diluted by public spaces with cafes and playgrounds. Moreover, the design proposal offered the synthesis of alternative farming and extensive agriculture. The farmer-government conflict could be solved by compensating for CO2 reduction. Future policy must concentrate on providing farmers with the support that goes beyond compensation payments, such as knowledge about financing options and new business models for peatland uses with higher water levels.
Social degradation and the conflict of interest between farmers and the government have been concerned as crucial aspects of the project. The harmful impacts of drained peatland intensify societal degradation by affecting rural job losses and the loss of traditional livelihoods. The design proposal offered the synthesis of alternative farming and extensive agriculture. The farmer-government conflict could be solved by compensating for CO2 reduction. On a larger scale, the design project could help to strengthen and extend the Laag Holland region’s social network related to peat polders. Since the design project has advocated for the formation of an institution to promote social learning and the integration of knowledge about alternative farming and new business models.
In this landscape, it is possible to strengthen and extend the social network by giving lectures and workshops in the peat learning community centre. This encourages the establishment of an institution to promote social learning and the integration of social-ecological knowledge. Politicians, farmers, residents and environmentalists all contribute significantly in sharing knowledge about social-ecological systems. Farmers should be considered full partners in public debates on agricultural concerns. Since they have moral beliefs and values that allow them to contribute to public debate in meaningful ways, such as animal welfare, environmental management, or moral ideals on good farming. As a result, it could be possible and relevant to provide farmers professional freedom in moral matters. Thus, it is critical to have public debates, workshops, and lectures on alternative farming with all stakeholders before launching new design interventions.
The system approach was used in combination with systemic (integrative) design and research to examine the interaction of social and ecological systems. Design is defined as a dialogue between a problem and a solution that takes place through analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Beginning with peatland drainage issues and associated social and environmental impacts, the solutions for mitigating these negative consequences were researched. For this, a Literature review and References analysis were conducted in which mitigation of these impacts was a key factor in developing design strategies. Finally, a toolbox of design strategies was created. These impacts are especially problematic when they are linked to the settlement. A review of the literature on the interaction between settlement and peatland restoration was conducted for this reason, where the social-ecological systems emerged as a theoretical framework. The case study area was analysed as a further step in order to determine the cause of the significant disconnection between social and ecological systems. To deal with this problem, the chosen strategies were applied. Finally, the social-ecological systems concept was found and together with chosen strategies adapted in the social-ecological landscape.
The project explores landscapes as social-ecological systems, focusing in particular on the linkages between natural and human processes, in order to create a sustainable peat polder landscape. The social-ecological systems in social-ecological landscape can be linked by sharing the flows of water, material, energy, or species, which benefits both systems. The water system connects these systems by linking the building’s water infrastructure and the water system for peat moss development. They are also interconnected by peat soil, which provides areas for nature, agriculture, living, and production. Peatlands can be exploited as carbon sinks as well as for eco-services like water storage for agricultural and natural uses. Coexistence is enabled by adapted, soil-friendly construction methods (e.g., floating and elevated houses), the establishment of different marsh-tolerant crops (e.g., paludi), and targeted stormwater management.
Through its cross-scale architectural-open space planning treatment and especially the design-integrated material exchange processes, the work provides an innovative and convincing approach for an integrated, climate-sensitive spatial development of the peat polder landscapes.
The concept of integrating social-ecological systems of social-ecological landscape means that the impact of the project site expands beyond its boundaries. The case study project is the first step in propelling the larger development of the social-ecological landscape.The design has economic, social, and environmental implications. Public places for sharing knowledge, but also for connecting with nature and socialising, are inextricably linked to economic and social development. Moreover, a fine-mesh management structure, from a social perspective, distributes opportunity and responsibility for managing the area. A larger number of managers also results in an increase of local visitors who come for a variety of purposes, which may lead to a wider variety of public places. I believe that social-ecological interactions should be addressed at all project scales, from the urban layout, adapting and integrating, for example, the new fabric with the existing one, to the cluster, creating different solutions depending on the specific condition of the surrounding landscape, and, last but not least, to the housing unit, which must be able to respond to landscape problems in terms of processes and spatial configuration. This project could be applied in practice in landscape architecture, urban design, and architecture that could contribute to an interdisciplinary holistic design approach. As the social-ecological landscape, it integrates urban and natural, social and ecological systems in mutually beneficial ways.
The current problems in peatlands are complex. In addition to subsidence, there are other related problems such as greenhouse gas emissions. Peatland drainage has negative social and environmental impacts that are harmful not just to the environment but also to humans. These problems exacerbate social degradation by causing the loss of rural employment and traditional livelihoods. Additionally, land subsidence is the cause of building and infrastructure damage, as well as increased management costs and soil compression. Moreover, these impacts result in reduced water quality, and loss of biodiversity. If the current form of land use is continued, the ground level in the peat meadow landscape will continue to subside and both the social and ecological impact will increase further. There is an urgent need for new solutions that will help to design a more sustainable landscape for the peatland area and preserve the peat soil. Moreover, due to the increasing demand for housing and the limited amount of good building sites, it is likely that places with unsupported peat soil will be developed as well. Building houses on peat is perceived as mainly a threat, but it can also be an opportunity. This will have an enormous impact and may economically be the main driver of land use. Landscape architects’ roles continue to expand beyond site design and increasingly address critical ecological and social issues on a global scale, uniquely positioning the profession to address drained peatland restoration in practice.
