Taneha Kuzniecow Bacchin

• PhD Landscape Architecture Water Engineering | M.Sc. | M.Arch. | Dipl.Arch.
• Professor (Associate) at Delft University of Technology

Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) proposes integrating the management of urban water cycles into urban planning and design as a strategy to better respond to water challenges in the urban environment. Proposed frameworks try capturing urban water sensitivity in terms of generic, transferable principles. In this article, we trace the water history...

Urban areas across the world are increasingly facing water scarcity due to population growth and urban expansion, which places significant stress on land use and leads to the depletion of water bodies. In many developing nations, the pursuit of economic gains often takes precedence over environmental concerns, resulting in unsustainable urban devel...

Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) identifies water sensitivity as a goal for cities to strive for and develop towards. Certain cities may face rapidly changing socioeconomic and urban dynamics, or lack of data and documentation, greater than those in which WSUD has been conceptualized. Landscape-informed, design-based fieldwork methods of walking...

Ecological Urbanism and Water Sensitive Urban Design have a central contribution to make in protecting and caring for people, nature and water in cities but readings of Urban Political Ecology evidence how ecological metaphors in urban design can easily translate into discriminatory urban development processes. This paper posits that for UPE to bec...

The latest IPCC report which is named ‘The Synthesis Report , Climate Change 2023’ was released on 20 March 2023 to inform the 2023 Global Stocktake under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The report finds that ‘there is more than 50% chance that global temperature rise will reach or surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2021...

In rapidly growing urban contexts, water plays a pivotal role in the transitions the urban environment goes through to sustain the quality of life of its population. Spatial planning and design are essential for the facilitation and manifestation of such transitions. Focusing on Bhuj, a rapidly growing Indian city in a hot arid desert climate, its...

The transformation of Pearl River Delta (PRD) is characterized by a complex layering, spatial and temporal differentiation. Its complexity is not only caused by interactions between multiple layers like blue-green spatial structure and urban spatial structure, but also caused by the interactions of several large sub-regions that are mutually interr...

PREPRINT: Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) coins water sensitivity as a goal for urban environments worldwide to strive for and develop towards. Secondary cities, however, are facing dynamics and data gaps far greater than cities in which WSUD has been conceptualised. A landscape-informed fieldwork method of walking transects and site visits, wi...

Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) offers an approach for alternative spatial organisation of cities and infrastructures fit to address urban and climatic challenges. However, its relevance in all contexts is questioned and transferability concerns arise when mainstreamed. Instead of considering water sensitivity as guiding concept for the ultimat...

Ecological Urbanism and Water Sensitive Urban Design have a central contribution to make in protecting and caring for people, nature and water in cities but readings of Urban Political Ecology evidence how ecological metaphors in urban design can easily translate into discriminatory urban development processes. This paper posits that for UPE to bec...

This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Urban Water Journal on 13 December 2022, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2022.2153704. Please cite as: Van der Meulen, G.J.M., Van Dorst, M.J., Bacchin, T.K. (2023). Water sensitivity and context specificity – concept and context in Water-Sensitive U...

The piece examines the role of soil in the making of the Dutch territory. Reflecting on the current climatic crisis, the piece proposes a revision of the Plan Ooievaar by refocusing on (1) the object of planning -from a land use focus to a land management focus of sediments and water-, and (2) the planning strategy -from one guided by the pace of c...

New approaches to combine flood protection, soil regeneration and water management strategies with urban design, landscape architecture and spatial planning in delta regions cannot do without knowledge and understanding of history. To find a new balance between urbanization, climate change, geopolitical shifts, the energy transition in deltas it is...

This paper aims to contribute to the limited understanding and recognition of soil ecosystem services (SoES) in spatial planning. In light of its critical role in climate crises and due to its global degradation, soil has drawn considerable attention in the recent global agenda. As one of its vital services, soil serves as a terrestrial carbon pool...

Urbanized landscapes in Delta regions have developed to the detriment of the ground, leading to increasing runoff, decreasing infiltration capacity, nitrogen and carbon fixation[1]. In the Dutch delta, the condition of ground exhaustion and pollution[2] comes together with extreme climatic crises, making this territory more and more vulnerable to c...

While the severity of the climate crisis calls for a discussion on transformative and potentially disruptive change, science, engineering, design, governance and practice are currently too detached to effectively contribute to such discussions. The spatial manifestation of climate crisis rarely appeals to one’s imagination. Yet, when reviewing the...

The present investigation portrays an experimental line of design and relational thinking aimed at establishing critical design premises in relation with the present state of change and crisis (Goddard et al., 2015 and Maxmen 2018). The description of abiotic and biotic shifts within the different realms -atmosphere, water and soil- inform the maki...

The title of this journal is the offspring of Han Meyer who started the interdisciplinary research movement Delta Urbanism about 25 years ago. The two words describe the concept that brings focus on an integrative and interdisciplinary approach in the planning, designing and engineering of urbanised deltas –fragile and highly dynamic landscapes at...

While the severity of the climate crisis calls for a discussion on transformative and potentially disruptive change, science, engineering, design, governance and practice are currently too detached to effectively contribute to such discussions. The spatial manifestation of climate crisis rarely appeals to one’s imagination. Yet, when reviewing the...

The present investigation portrays an experimental line of design and relational thinking aimed at establishing critical design premises in relation with the present state of change and crisis (Goddard et al., 2015 and Maxmen 2018). The description of abiotic and biotic shifts within the different realms -atmosphere, water and soil- inform the mak...

Urban water systems face severe challenges such as urbanisation, population growth and climate change. Traditional technical solutions, i.e., pipe-based, grey infrastructure, have a single purpose and are proven to be unsustainable compared to multi-purpose nature-based solutions. Green Infrastructure encompasses on-site stormwater management pract...

A revitalização de rios urbanos é um tema de grande interesse para a melhoria da qualidade de vida nas cidades, inclusão da água na paisagem urbana e a conversão da cidade em espaços resilientes e mais sustentáveis. A gestão das águas esta atrelada à gestão urbana, e tem impacto direto sobre questões como abastecimento público, coleta e tratamento...

What if sea level rises with 10 meters? This question has created a whole new genre of fiction: cli-fi. It also inspired water management engineer Geert van der Meulen to design a radically different adaptation pathway strategy for the Netherlands. A spectacular mapping exercise visualises a gradual retreat strategy, provocatively building on the c...

Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) measures provide a wide range of benefits beyond simply dealing with stormwater. In the United Kingdom such measures are termed sustainable drainage systems (SuDS). There are a number of tools and procedures for assessing the benefits provided, some of which give a monetized bottom line. A U.K. project led by t...

In the urban water cycle, there are different ways of handling stormwater runoff. Traditional systems mainly rely on underground piped, sometimes named ‘gray’ infrastructure. New and so-called ‘green/blue’ ambitions aim for treating and conveying the runoff at the surface. Such concepts are mainly based on ground infiltration and temporal storage....

In this paper, we present a methodology to evaluate stormwater systems with different future boundary conditions facing the highly uncertain spatial and temporal developments in the future urban fabric. Investigations are made to assess impacts caused by climate change and urbanization, shifts in the network layout and alternative strategies of sto...

The city of Kiruna in Northern Sweden has become known for the need to relocate major parts of the city. Current and future mining activities in the world’s largest underground iron ore mine are the cause of land subsidence that requires relocation of substantial parts of the town including its water infrastructure. Figure 1 shows the area currentl...

Cities exhibit unique and ever-changing spatial layouts, formed by nested natural and socio-economic systems, sub-systems and components resulting from exchange, interaction, and interdependency processes. In this context, managing surface water in urban areas requires new approaches that integrate the knowledge about territorial patterns and proce...

A spatial analytical framework to support landscape planning and urban design practices was introduced in this study aiming to integrate different scales of analysis and their effect when retrofitting Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) in the existing urban environment. The multi-scale analyses are performed using a geographic information system (...

RÉSUMÉ Un cadre d'analyse spatiale pour supporter la planification du paysage et les pratiques d'aménagement urbain a été introduit dans cette étude visant à intégrer différentes échelles d'analyse et leur effet lorsque on travaille avec des techniques de Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) pour la réhabilitation dans l'environnement urbain existan...

Cities exhibit unique spatial patterns, and thus a distinctive heterogeneity. At different scales of influence, they introduce changes in the physical properties of the natural environment, as the diffusion of impervious surfaces. While climate change is expected to increase the frequency of hazards, patterns of urbanization might be critical in ba...

The consequences of urban growth on the exposure, sensitivity but also as a driver of flooding are often underexposed. Yet, the rate of current urbanization is unprecedented and might increase future flood risk dramatically. To gain insight in this issue, a study on urban development has been performed using 3 case study areas: the megacities of Be...

The consequences of urban growth on the exposure, sensitivity but also as a driver of flooding are often underexposed. Yet, the rate of current urbanization is unprecedented and might increase future flood risk dramatically. To gain insight in this issue, a study on urban development has been performed using 3 case study areas: the megacities of Be...