Programme

Building with Nature is geared towards the next step in hydraulic engineering: moving away from defensive design approaches with the aim of minimising negative effects and moving forward to design approaches and designs that target the maximisation of system potential.

The focus is on planned developments, with policy-makers, designers, project contractors and project managers teaming up to bring together factors such as safety, natural values, economic potential, quality of life and sustainability in ways that generate mutual benefits. We are going to learn to build with nature instead of building in ways that limit the impact on nature.

To make the transition to building with nature, a number of fundamental obstacles need to be overcome. We will have to learn what building with nature signifies in terms of decision-making and collaboration with parties involved in the development of infrastructure. We need to know more about how building with nature impacts design processes (from initiative and planning to design, execution and management) that play a role in the field of infrastructure projects. We will have to fill gaps in knowledge (whether in the disciplines themselves, in interdisciplinary or trans-disciplinary areas) relating to building with natural processes and the maximisation of system potential. Tools will have to be developed to ease the way for the application of the concept.