curator
George Brugmans

curator assistant
Alexandra Sonnemans

all texts, narrative
George Brugmans

graphic design
ARK
Roosje Klap, Nora Bekes, Loes Claessens

animation Drought in the Delta
concept and research: Studio Marco Vermeulen
Marco Vermeulen (lead designer), Bram Willemse, Joost van der Waal
computer animation: Tungsten Studio
Martin Grootenboer, Sara Orfali

production and planning
Jolanda van Dinteren, Johanna Fuhler, Eva Knollenburg

events
Lisa Lambert, Yonca Özbilge

copy editing and translations
InOtherWords translation & editing
D’Laine Camp, Gerda ten Cate, Maria van Tol

construction and lighting
Bart Cuppens Tentoonstellingsbouw
Keilepand BV
Quintusbelichting
Tungsten Studio

In the Dutch delta, climate change is generating completely new problems. More and more often there is too much water, but we are also – and this is really new – now confronted with drought and shortages of fresh water.

For hundreds of years, we’ve worked hard to make our country better at draining water as quickly and efficiently as possible for reasons of safety and agricultural productivity. But now we are suddenly facing a new challenge: how to retain water in order to be able to use it when we need it.

artist impression of the animation of Droogte in de Delta in the Keilezaal

^{© IABR, SMV}

Building blocks for a new freshwater strategy
In the exhibition DOWN TO EARTH: DROUGHT IN THE DELTA, the results of the research by design done by the IABR–Atelier Drought in the Delta illustrate this challenge with an animation of a cross section of the Dutch Delta. Looking in the direction of Germany, France and Belgium, upstream along the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, we see the Alps in the distance. In about seven minutes, the animation shows how our delta is currently functioning, what problems have arisen due to climate change and what possible solutions there are.
The aim of the Atelier was to provide building blocks for a new freshwater strategy in conjunction with other transition challenges, such as the energy transition, food production, and urbanization, which always involve increasingly intensive use of the topsoil and subsoil.

Different subsystems, diverse solutions, many opportunities
The Dutch delta consists of a number of subsystems, each with a characteristic soil and water system and its own landscape characteristics. The freshwater shortage therefore manifests itself differently in different places, with numerous consequences and therefore the urgent need to investigate diverse possible solutions.
The pressure on land use is great and the spatial claims of transition tasks in the areas of energy, water, food, and the built environment only add to it. But if we connect these tasks and use them as leverage, there are also many opportunities.

Concrete proposals and a call for action
Drought in the Delta highlights ten subareas. For each subsystem, the animation sketches a picture of the future in which measures to increase the water buffering capacity serve as a lever for other transition tasks. For example, a renewed freshwater system can contribute to robust nature (biodiversity and the reduction of natural fires, for instance), to the energy transition (aquathermia), to the reduction of CO₂ emissions (wetting peat meadows) and to sustainable urbanization (water plazas and retention parks).

By showing how we are able to deal with weather extremes, right down to the subsoil, the study points the way to how the freshwater challenge can be used as leverage to attain the comprehensive transformation of our delta, which is actually one large urban landscape. At the same time, an attractive picture of the future of the Netherlands is painted, with a wide variety of landscapes. Something that is certainly possible if we broker good international agreements about the water distribution in the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt catchment area.

In short, the results of the research by design done by the Atelier are a call for action. We need concrete building blocks for a new national freshwater strategy and, equally important, concrete proposals for solution directions, in order to make it possible for local and regional authorities to work on their own specific tasks, in such a way that they seamlessly fit into the inevitably comprehensive transition of the entire delta.

IABR–Atelier Drought in the Delta

research by design
Studio Marco Vermeulen
Marco Vermeulen (lead designer)
Bram Willemse, Joost van der Waal

production and projectmanagement
IABR
Jolanda van Dinteren, Suzanne Tietema
Johanna Fuhler, Vivian Ammerlaan

director IABR–Ateliers
George Brugmans

IABR initiates and produces the IABR–Ateliers in the Netherlands as a lead partner of the Dutch National Government within the framework of the ARO, the Action Agenda for Spatial Design 2017–2020 of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations

In addition to the results of the IABR–Atelier Drought in the Delta, four exemplary Dutch projects were selected for presentation in the exhibition DOWN TO EARTH: DROOGTE IN THE DELTA. They explore concrete solutions that can be deployed in the Netherlands and elsewhere for retention and use of fresh water: OASTAR, Panorama Waterland, Watermosaic Groene Hart and Sponstuin.

COASTAR
Smart Use of the Subsurface Leads to a Sustainable Freshwater Supply

^{Sustainable freshwater supply through smart use of the subsurface}

^{image: COASTAR, Pepijn Barnard}

In the Netherlands, demand for fresh water has increased considerably. Opportunely, new techniques and insights offer prospects for new solutions. The COASTAR approach is one example: create a robust freshwater supply through the large-scale, organized and smart use of the subsurface for the storage and supply of fresh water. COASTAR interventions have been explored in four locations in Zuid-Holland. The next steps are pilot projects and eventually implementation. Thus, a valuable set of instruments is being developed that can be employed in other regions in the Netherlands as well as in coastal areas world wide.

realisation: Allied Waters, KWR, Deltares, Arcadis

PANORAMA WATERLAND
The Search for an Eternal Source of Clean Drinking Water

^{Panorama Waterland as a driver for the agricultural and energy transition}

Water company Vitens is faced with the challenge, now and in the future, of providing 5.7 million customers in the (north)eastern part of the Netherlands with sufficient drinking water. Now, in 2020, the third extremely dry year in a row in the Netherlands, it is clear that the current water system is reaching its limits and that new perspectives will have to be explored. In collaboration with landscape architects and other partners, a spatial concept is being investigated that takes the retention of the available water as its starting point. The water system and soil determine the spatial design and land use: areas are approached as eternal, clean sources of water. To test the principles of Panorama Waterland, the Sallandse Heuvelrug was used as an exemplary test case.

realisation and research by design: Vitens, H+N+S Landscape Architects, Ruimtevolk, Roosemalen & Savekoul

WATER MOSAIC GROENE HART
soil as a condition – water as an instrument – land use as a result

^{building blocks for Water Mosaic Groene Hart}

^{image: Sant en Co, FABRICations}

The Netherlands’ Groene Hart, the Green Heart of the Randstad, is an icon. It’s one place where the Dutch have taken control of the water over the centuries. Complex water management has led to a rich cultural landscape. However, subsidence, salinization and dehydration caused by climate change are putting the Groene Hart under pressure. Increasing drought exacerbates soil subsidence and salinization, resulting in higher CO₂ emissions and lower crop yields. Seawater penetrates inland via the rivers, causing the freshwater intake points to become too saline to allow water to enter.
Water Mosaic states that, in order to cope with these problems, we have to say goodbye to the image of the Groene Hart as a homogeneous landscape where the current form of land use determines the management of water levels. The project shows the effects of a more future-proof water management that starts by determining the underlying soil conditions from which follow the appropriate form of land use. Water-level management and soil conditions will be the guiding factors.

initiated by Stuurgroep Groene Hart
research by design: Sant en Co, FABRICations

SPONSTUIN
City as Sponge

^Sponstuin

^{© De Urbanisten}

Many Dutch cities are built on wet soil, composed of peat or clay. Excess water has to be drained away, but in combination with intensive urbanization this generates risks such as flooding, drought and subsidence. Climate change exacerbates these risks, so it’s time for a new, sustainable approach to water management in an urban context.
De Urbanisten are investigating how Rotterdam can function as a sponge on the scale of the entire city: Sponge City. In the Sponstuin they are testing how an attractive green outdoor space can function as a sponge: as a green space that is able to absorb and retain water during periods of heavy precipitation. The retained water can then be released in dry periods, such as the past three summers.

realization and research by design: De Urbanisten

Since the legendary 'water biennale' of 2005, THE FLOOD, curated by Adriaan Geuze, water has been running like a blue thread through the exhibitions and research programs of the IABR. In 2005, Rotterdam Water City 2035 was developed from an, at the time, completely new perspective: Rotterdam, don't treat 'water' as a threat or cost item, but as an opportunity! The presentation was one of the high-profile components of THE FLOOD, after which the municipality of Rotterdam integrated the plans in full in its City Vision Rotterdam 2030. The seeds were also sown for various initiatives that later crystallized as Resilient Rotterdam.

^{WORKING SESSION ROTTERDAM WATERSTAD 2035 - IABR (2005)}

From 2005 onwards, a relationship was consciously established by IABR between research, presentation and implementation, a water as leverage approach in fact, one that has been further developed in later IABR research projects in the Netherlands, but also in and with the cities of São Paulo and Istanbul: the water challenge as a lever for an integrated approach to urban development.

Play

IABR–Atelier Istanbul: Arnavutköy

The first IABR–Atelier Istanbul, a collaboration of the IABR and the Municipality of Arnavutköy, in the north of Istanbul, explored whether and how a balance could be found between relentless urbanization and the urgency of good water management in the still green north of Istanbul.

^{© IABR, 2014}