German Research Foundation funds watercourse
enhancement projects

Researchers devise new design strategies for urban habitats along rivers prone to flooding

Many rivers flow right through urban centres, and to prevent flooding their banks are often contained by stone and concrete, making them inaccessible. The new research project led by two junior professors at STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, 'Process-oriented design of urban watercourses', adopts new approaches to integrating flood protection, ecology and open space use. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is contributing 250,000 Euros towards the project. STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN is an interdisciplinary network for teaching, research and praxis at the Leibniz Universität Hannover’s Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Sciences, currently with 16 members from the fields of landscape architecture, urban planning, architecture, civil engineering, biology, sociology and hydrology.

Led by Prof. Antje Stokman (Institute of Open Space Planning and Design) and Prof. Martin Prominski (Institute of Landscape Architecture), scientists are investigating 15 current European projects that pursue landscape architectural design processes in riverside areas with regard to their approach to the watercourse dynamics. They aim to do more than document these processes, starting with a handbook for future measures and working towards systematised presentation of design strategies to shape the spatial-temporal dynamics of flowing water that will permit integration of flood protection, ecology and open space use.

Meldung vom 22.09.2008