## A complex and interrelated system

Based on the literature, a methodology to map the different interactions presented above has been constructed. The process presented in this chapter aims, in a first phase, to build different layers – a delayering of the system – and, in a second phase, to assemble these layers to highlight their interrelations as a three-dimensional system.

### *Delayering of the system*

#### A. Soil cover

To identify unsealed soils, high-resolution data (2 m) from the vegetation map produced by Brussels Environment (Bruxelles Environnement, 2022b) is used. This data was constructed using infrared aerial imagery (NDVI) and provides information on the presence of vegetation rather than soil cover. Therefore, additional processing was carried out to filter out buildings, whose vegetated roofs could distort the results (Massy, Martin and Wyler, 2011), and roads, to limit the excessively large vegetated area due to the tree canopy. Although there might be some remaining inaccuracies, the results [fig. 6] allow for a sufficient level of detail on a large scale.

Concerning sealed soils, an additional categorisation between built and non-built seems necessary from a urban transformation perspective. Indeed, a project aiming to transform a non-built sealed surface, such as a car park or mineral square, is different from a building transformation project. To isolate the buildings, cadastral data (SPF Finances, 2021) was used. Non-built sealed soils were identified by elimination, i.e. soils that are not unsealed, are not built on, and not covered by water.

#### B. Urban soil and unsealing constraints

Data on soil pollution is published by Brussels Environment (Bruxelles Environnement, 2020c) and classify parcels into 4 (+1) distinct categories: (1) Non-polluted, (2) Slightly polluted without risk, (3) Polluted without risk, (4) Polluted parcels where soil studies or treatments are ongoing. A 5th category (category 0) groups parcels where pollution is suspected, given the risk generated by past activities.

These categories have regulatory implications related to soil. In the case of water infiltration, studies may be required before infiltrating water for the parcels in categories 3, 4 and 0 (Bruxelles Environnement, 2022a).

These categories also determine the possible uses, as in the case of the vegetable gardens: risks are minimal in categories 1 and 2, prohibitions may exist in categories 3 and 4, and a soil evaluation is required for category 0.

This categorisation of parcels also determines the required process regarding pollution in the case of soil transformation [fig. 5]:

1. Categories 1 and 2 (unpolluted or slightly polluted): remediation or risk management intervention is not necessary.

2. Parcels not included in the database: a soil evaluation ('reconnaissance de l'état du sol') is only needed if pollution is discovered or suspected. The soil evaluation is the starting point for the process described in [fig. 5].

3. Category 0 (suspected pollution): a soil evaluation is required. The same applies to category 0+1 and 0+2, as pollution is still or again suspected.

4. Categories 3 and 4 (polluted without risk or under investigation/treatment) as well as categories 0+3 and 0+4 (since in addition to the suspicion of pollution, pollution has actually been detected): a risk study ('étude de risques') or the intervention of the pollution expert are necessary, which may therefore lead to remediation or risk management projects.

These four points present an increasing need or likelihood for remediation or risk management, ranging from point 1, requiring no intervention, to point 4, where intervention is required. Points 2 and 3 represent a degree of probability of contamination and are not related to the extent of the pollution. For example, it is not impossible that serious pollution may be present, requiring major remediation measures, on parcels not included in the database (category 2), even if it is less likely.

In this study, the probability of soil pollution for parcels not included in the database – which are numerous in Brussels – as well as the public domain – also not covered by the database – is estimated according to the importance of the presence of artificial backfill. Data concerning the presence of backfill comes from the geotechnical maps of Brussels (Dam et al., 1990) and is determined through a comparison of the first elevation map of Brussels from 1860 with elevation data from the 1980s.
Through the study of pollution risks and the processes involved with soil pollution, this analysis of urban soils highlights the unsealing constraints related to contamination, ultimately enabling the mapping of these constraints [fig. 6].

<figure><img src="image_251.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 5] Diagram showing the process for soil contamination in Brussels, elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>

### C. Geological strata, underground constructions, and infiltration potential

The analysis of the geological strata is based on the BruStrati3D hydrogeological model (Bruxelles Environnement, 2020a). A categorisation of these strata is made according to their depth and their permeability (aquifer, aquitard or aquiclude). The classification of these different hydrogeological units makes it possible to identify the depth at which the first aquiclude or aquitard is located, and therefore the first barrier to water infiltration. In addition to this data, the water table also represents a limit to infiltration. Indeed, a subsoil already saturated with water has logically reached a limit in its capacity to absorb more water. A thick permeable strata and a deep water table therefore allows a large quantity of water to infiltrate and thus acts as a reservoir (De Bondt and Claeys, 2008). Conversely, a shallow impermeable stratum or a shallow water table limits water infiltration.

Underground constructions are an obstacle to water infiltration in the subsoil. They can represent a physical barrier to infiltration and can also limit the interest of infiltrating water, as in the case where a drainage infrastructure is present and diverts infiltrated water to the sewer system. Underground constructions also alter natural groundwater flows and water levels (Attard et al., 2017). Soil unsealing near underground infrastructure must therefore be conducted with care.

An analysis of the geological structure and the underground infrastructure can therefore assess the potential for water infiltration, by highlighting the depth of the first barrier to infiltration (Bossard, Cavalieri and Ska, 2022) and the presence of underground constructions.
<figure><img src="image_252.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_253.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_254.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_255.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_256.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_257.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 6] Delayering of the system, elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>
Mapping interrelation of the three-dimensional system

A. sealed and built soil

The diagram below [fig. 7] illustrates the different possibilities of interactions between the three previously presented layers and allows for the identification of different categories. This categorisation is based on two variables: infiltration potential and transformation constraints. The degree of geological permeability is a determining factor for assessing the infiltration potential, i.e. the role that these soils, once unsealed, could play in the water cycle. The second variable – transformation constraints – considers the probability and need for intervention regarding soil contamination and, if intervention is needed, its importance. The presence of underground constructions also influences the transformation constraints and is therefore also integrated into this variable.

The ecosystem potential and transformation constraints can be visualised in the form of a two-entry table [fig. 8, top], allowing these two variables to be crossed. The cells of this table represent the different cases emerging from the analysis that we will now detail.

Firstly, non-polluted or lightly polluted soils without risk have very low transformation constraints (as no remediation would be necessary) except when they are over or near important underground infrastructure. In the latter case, a study of these underground constructions is at least necessary. Infiltration potential depends, as previously presented, on the geological capacity for water absorption and the existence of underground infrastructure. Underground constructions could also counterbalance the positive effects of unsealing, for example if a draining infrastructure diverts infiltrated water to the sewer system.

Soils with suspicion of contamination or not included in the soil database can generate transformation constraints in the event of pollution being detected. Therefore, the probability of constraints is increased, while the potential for infiltration remains unchanged from that of non-polluted soils. Finally, polluted soils always represent strong transformation constraints, as pollution management is necessary, especially if they are located on permeable geological structures with high infiltration potential, as the risk of pollutant dissemination is also higher.

This methodology enables the elaboration of a Brussels map [fig.8, top] revealing the constraints of soil transformation, ranging from light (low constraints) to dark (high constraints), as well as the potential benefits of unsealing, ranging from red-orange (low potential) to blue (high potential).

B. unsealed soil

Concerning unsealed soil, categories based on the need for intervention relative to pollution are constructed [fig. 7]. Unsealed soils where no intervention is needed (non-polluted or slightly polluted without risk) play an important role in the urban ecosystem, and their protection therefore seems necessary. When these soils are also located on a geological structure with high infiltration potential, their role in the city's water cycle seems even more crucial. Thus, these soils fall into the category of 'soils to protect as a priority'. Unsealed soils with a suspicion of pollution or not included in the soil contamination database fall into the category of soils to be studied, given the lack of information about them and the potential risk of contaminant dispersion.

Unsealed soils that are contaminated pose a significant risk of pollutant dispersion, particularly when situated above a geological formation with high infiltration potential or above underground infrastructure. This combination of unsealed soil cover, soil pollution, and permeable geological strata presents a significant risk and falls into the category of 'soils to study and remediate as a priority'. When the permeability of the subsoil is lower, the risk of pollutant dispersion is reduced (but still present). The corresponding category is therefore 'soils to study and remediate'.
<figure><img src="image_258.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_259.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 7] Diagram of interrelations, elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_260.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 8] Sealed soil and unsealed soil mapping, elaborated by the author.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_261.png" /></figure>

Sealed
soils

<figure><img src="image_262.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_263.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_264.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_265.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_266.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_267.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_268.png" /></figure>

Unsealed
soils

<figure><img src="image_269.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_270.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_271.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_272.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_273.png" /></figure>

soils to protect as a priority
soil to protect
soils to study
soils to be remediated/studied
soils to be remediated/studied as a priority

[fig. 9] Zooms of the sealed and unsealed soil maps, elaborated by the author.

Conclusion

These maps [fig. 8 and 9] seek to synthesise the interrelation between soil cover, soil and geological strata, thereby facilitating a more comprehensive understanding of the complex soil system. A parallel analysis of sealed and unsealed soils offers a new perspective on urban transformation. The third zoom [fig. 9] reveals a district predominantly characterised by sealed soil, which is heavily impacted by soil contamination and traversed by underground constructions. This zoom offers a new perspective for envisioning the transformation of this district by identifying areas where an increase in unsealed living soil would be significantly beneficial without requiring disproportionately extensive remediation efforts. Conversely, unsealed soils are predominant in the area shown in the last zoom [fig. 9]. However, some of these soils are contaminated, and given the underlying permeable geological structure increasing contaminant dispersion risks, remediation appears necessary. Thus, this mapping enables a new gaze on the urban fabric, highlighting the environmental potentials and constraints of urban transformation.
This paper emphasises the importance of incorporating soil and underground dynamics, both visible and invisible, within the urban diagnostic phase, the urban planning strategy, and the decision-making process. Integrating these soil and underground dynamics into existing frameworks will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of urban environments, enabling an urban transformation toward a more resilient city able to face the complex challenges of climate change. An approach that is sensitive to soil and underground dynamics aligns with the concept of "design with nature" (McHarg, 1969), highlighting the necessity of harmonising the city with its natural environment.

In line with this paper, explorations of various scenarios have been carried out (Bossard et al., 2023, forthcoming). The focus of these scenarios is the Heyvaert District in Brussels, which serves as a case study for envisioning a transformation taking into account soil and geological strata. This study also integrates Brussels urbanism regulations and addresses the question of the practical implementation of these transformations, identifying both limits and paths toward a transformation of the soil enabling a more resilient district and city.

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# Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines

Sebastian Niemann, Dr. Gérald Ledent

UCLouvain - LOCI Bruxelles - LAB - Uses & Spaces
Dr. Gérald Ledent, Dr. Bénédicte Grosjean
Expected thesis defence 2028
Sebastian.Niemann@uclouvain.be

## Abstract

This paper focuses on the typology of the coal mining habitat in northern France. In particular, it investigates the relationships between housing and the territory on which it is set, namely its resources and their exploitation. This living and developing ecosystems unfold as various architectural types (coherent social and spatial structures) that forge the territory's identity.

The analysis focusses on the area of Lens-Liévin situated in the centre of the coal mining strip in northern France. It traces the co-development of the mining industry and housing throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The original cartography reveals how the inner logics of the coal mining extraction dictate the planning on territorial and urban scale, how the housing is used as a tool to assure, control and optimise the work-force.

As the territory has entered the post-carbon era, understanding the links between territory and housing can be a tool to accompany and design their transformations towards new ecosystems based on sustainable resources, engendering new architectural and territorial forms and finally offering a new socio-cultural identity. In addition, this knowledge could be a tool to address similar issues along the European coal basin.

> **"Like a fiend with his dope or a drunkard his wine,**
> **A man must have lust for the lure of the mine."** (Travis 1947)

This research is a central part of an ongoing PHD-thesis on the 'Constitution, evolution and future of an architectural type – the mining habitat in northern France'. In particular, it investigates the relationships between housing and the territory on which it is set, namely its resources and their exploitation. This living and developing ecosystems unfold as various architectural types (coherent social and spatial structures) that forges the territory's identity. The research aims to develop tools and data in order to understand, accompany and shape the contemporary transformations taking place in this territory which is highly exemplary for the process of deindustrialisation and decarbonisation in other regions in France and Europe.

<figure><img src="image_274.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 1] Map of the main coal basins in Europe: FR/BE UK DE PO UA</figcaption></figure>

A ribbon of coal basins spans across the European continent from the UK to Ukraine. On this geological base, the mining industry has developed according to different political, social and economic contexts. Everywhere, it shaped the territories from a social and spatial point of view. Coal extraction depending directly on labour force, miner housing became part of the necessary infrastructures along with pits, workshops and railways. These singular mining estates (cité minière) still shape the image and identity of these territories.

The region of northern France (official administrative title: **Bassin Minier du Nord Pas-de-Calais**) covers a curved strip with a length of about 105km from the Belgian border in the east through the cities of
Valenciennes, Douai, Lens and Bethune in the west and a width of about 8km, covering a total surface of about 1.150km². The coal is situated in under a mantel layer of 20 to 250m, with its layers going as deep as 2.000m and containing different qualities with more or less calorific value. (Bouroz 1969)
The mining industry used concessions allowed by the state to a single company as authorisations for the monopoly of coal-extraction in a defined zone of the underground. On the surface, the companies owned large plots in order to build the necessary infrastructure for the industrial activity.

On this initially only sparsely populated territory, more than 120.000 dwellings grouped in 690 settlements were built between 1810 and 1960. The mining companies themselves undertook their construction in the form of autonomous estates. In terms of spaces, these projects embrace scales that range from the territorial planning, urban infrastructure to the technical and architectural building details. In terms of uses, they respond to the inner logics of the companies and their goal to optimise the coal output.

Due to external political reasons, with still half of the coal remaining in the ground, the coal extraction was gradually reduced until its full and definite ending in 1990. The process of deindustrialisation led to the closing of all related industrial sites, but the decrease of economy and population also heavily impacted the towns as a whole and the housing.

<figure><img src="image_275.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 2] The mining basin in Northern France: mining concessions, pits and housing estates
Creation date of concessions > 1793 > 1836 > 1856 > 1881 > 1911</figcaption></figure>

With the beginning of the deindustrialisation and the loss of their initial function as part of an industrial activity, miners housing became a subject of scientific research. Architects and engineers working on its development were replaced by historians and conservators. The creation in 2000 of the *Mission Bassin Minier* as an intercommunal institution helped enforce the knowledge-building and aimed the registration in the UNESCO world heritage list as well as an overall vision for the development of the territory.

The principal study of the housing typology ‘*Du coron à la cite*’ by the regional historian Yves Le Maner in 1995 presents three distinct housing types and their linear chronological development in time. The classification is based on historical and esthetical characteristics of the exterior of the houses and urban composition. In reference to the ideas of the garden city movement, and reusing the same vocabulary as the conceptors, the ‘*cité jardin*’ is presented as the climax of the mining housing development. (Le Maner 1995) Unfortunately, the work does not include the analysis of spatial structures or the larger context of the singular examples. Based on this work, since 2006, the *Mission Bassin Minier* presents four types of miners housing complemented by the ‘*cité moderne*’, the buildings and settlements constructed after WWII. (Mission Bassin Minier 2016)

The argumentation for the registration application established in 2012 by the same institution is largely based on these analyses for the qualification and evaluation of the proposed assets. And while the territory is presented as a ‘living and evolutive cultural landscape’, the further development of the
territories components focuses on the preservation and promotion of its industrial history. (Mission Bassin Minier 2012) Concerning the housing estates, restrictions to modifications are enforced at the scale of the settlements and the buildings while an ongoing program for energetic renovation serves likewise the restauration of their original image.

It seems that the investments in the habitat is more motivated by the potential development of tourism than by the real problems and needs of the habitants. Furthermore, the storytelling based on esthetical styles seems to inherently advantage the ‘cité jardin’ and to discriminate the ‘cité moderne’.

Concerning the focus of this paper, the main critic of the existing research on the corpus lies in its incapacity to link the singular assets to the territory. The established classification fails to describe the specific characteristics of housing as a part of a specific territory and remains superficial regarding the links made to the mining industry.

Therefore, this paper tries to establish a new typological classification of the mining habitat in northern France: its specific architectural and urban forms can be linked to the territory through the analysis of the mining industry itself. Housing is an integral component of the system of the extraction of the territories resource.

This classification follows the development of the coal exploitation itself describing five distinct stages of the co-development of housing and industry: ‘preindustrial’ and ‘proto-industrial’ times, periods of ‘industrial growth’, ‘climax’ and finally ‘decline’.
"Then I'll look down from the door of my Heavenly home,
And pity the miner a diggin' my bones." (Travis 1947)

<figure><img src="image_276.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 3] Diagram of the set-up of the entire research project</figcaption></figure>

To trace the historic co-development of the mining industry and its housing estates, the analysis focuses on one segment of the mining basin in order to provide an adequate scale to analyse the urban forms and figures. The area of Lens-Liévin occupies a central position both in the geography and the identity of the coal strip and is (therefore) also well documented.

This paper produces a series of original maps of the mining habitat combining data of the specialised archives of the *Mission Bassin Minier* and the *Centre Historique Minier* with contemporary geographic information and historical cartography.

Comparable to the use of the notion of ‘oilscape’ (Hein 2016), this atlas identifies all artefacts, buildings and infrastructures necessary to the coal mining industry and traces them both in time and in space. It focuses on housing with an influence on and of the industrial development, particularly the location and characteristics of the mining pits.

Situated in between a geographical scale showing the entire coal strip in northern France or even Europe, and an architectural scale representing precisely buildings and spaces, the scale used for this paper allows to analyse the general urban development. However, difficulties on data arise from the imprecision of cartography of 19th century, the large destructions of WWI and the following, complex process of reconstruction.

This article uses the definition of ‘housing’ as a form of dwelling including spatial and social structures in different scales. (Devillers 1974) This definition by the French school of typo-morphology is enlarged to the notion of ‘ecosystem’ which embraces the economic and social interactions and characteristics as a whole. The expression which seems to fit best would be ‘habitat’ in English and ‘milieu’ in French.

The housing is not limited to spatial and social structures but constitutes a living ecosystem in relationship with the territory. This ecosystem is built up from the characteristics of the territory, namely its geological characteristics and constitutes the socio-cultural identity. On the territory of the mining basin in northern France, the preindustrial ecosystem was based on the disponible of water which shaped the structures of agricultural activities. The discovery of coal introduced the development of a new ecosystem.
"Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew,
Where the dangers are many and the pleasures are few," (Travis 1947)

<figure><img src="image_277.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 4] Lens-Liévin-area</figcaption></figure>

In 'pre-industrial times', the territory is dominated by agricultural activities where the extraction and use of coal is of no real importance.

Concerning the habitat of this period, a large scientific corpus exists treating housing as a part of rural life and agricultural economy. It has been developed beginning in the 1940th in order to present the buildings and villages including the habits and customs. Curiously the monumental work of 'L'architecture rurale française' (Cuisenier, Raulin, Calame 1988) composed by more than thirty volumes, with one dedicated to the north of France, mentions no example situated in the mining basin, as if this area was excluded of the rural world.

In 1850, agricultural activities have fully taken possession of the entire territory. Successively, the natural landscape had been transformed in order to work the surface and soil. The preindustrial society exploited the resource water and used the muscle workforce of animals and men. The spaces of working and living are combined in sets of building known as farms.

In northern France, as the topography gave no natural access to the coal, its existence has not been discovered until the beginning of the 18th century after coal mining technics spread in Belgium towards and finally over the French border.

The general development of the concessions and extraction sites has been described as a 'spatial system' with a progressive expansion taking place in small steps one after and next to the other. (Baudelle 1994) The first concessions were developed in the area of Valenciennes with small pits located at close distance. The coal mining stripe than expanded westwards in a more or less linear manner before accessing also the lateral areas on both sides.
<figure><img src="image_278.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 5] Lens-Liévin-area in 1856</figcaption></figure>

The 'proto-industrial period' sees the installation of the first coal extraction sites but the system is still dominated and dependent on other resources.

The concession of Lens was created in 1853 and exploited by the company of the same name. It included only several small towns and was largely dominated by agricultural activities. The first two pits were constructed next to the town centre and in direct relation to the existing infrastructures of transportation and housing.

With the same pattern, other pits were dug time in Liévin and Douvrin but without the formal existence of proper concessions.

At this time, no housing construction was necessary due to the existence of housing structures and the small size of the pits. Only the increasing number and size of the pits created the demand of a larger workforce which led to the construction of housing by the companies themselves. These first constructions of the buildings for pits and housing largely build on the experiences and examples of the existing rural architecture like mills and row houses for dayworkers.

The construction of the first pits prompted the beginning of the industrial revolution by the making coal available as an efficient and transportable energy source. By means of the steam engine, coal energy was used to extract and transport more coal, creating thus a new ecosystem as a self-powering machine.
<figure><img src="image_279.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 6] Lens-Liévin-area in 1904</figcaption></figure>

The phase of ‘industrial growth’ consists in the constitution and establishment of a new economic system intensifying extraction and territorial occupation. Other activities are side-lined.

The limits of the mining area are extended in this period by the creation of new concessions in the north and south of the central coal stripe. They were smaller in surface and activities. The company of Douvrin for instance was quickly absorbed by the one of Lens after economical misfortunes.

The concessions were developed by the creation of new and the reinforcement of existing pits. New technologies allowed to dig deeper and create longer underground galleries. The pits are located along the transportation lines of existing and expanding railways and canals.

In order to meet the growing demand for labour, new housing settlements are created. They are situated next to the extraction sites, meaning that they became independent from the existing towns and hamlets. For organisational reasons including social confinement, these new settlements were often placed at good distance of existing urban and social centres.
<figure><img src="image_280.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 7] Lens-Liévin-area in 1954</figcaption></figure>

In its 'climax', the mining industry exploits the population and the territory, seen as part of a total extraction machine.

Still in the beginning of the 20th century, two new further concessions were created in the south of the area, of which only one was exploited on the border with the existing ones. The territorial expansion ended and was replaced by a development taking place within existing boundaries where the central areas were highly densified.

The construction of further pits went on until WWI when heavy fighting took place in the area for several years and most of the industrial infrastructures including pits and housing were destroyed. After the war, the reconstruction was an opportunity to modernise and enlarge the existing sites which made the creation of new ones less important. After WWII, the mining industry was nationalised and its planification centralised. As their size became quite monumental, the number of extraction pits was reduced while the existing ones, all connected to each other below the surface, were maintained, mainly as secondary accesses.

Along with the new pits and their ever-growing scale, new housing estates were constructed leading to a continuous urbanisation of the central parts of the mining areas.

After WWI, housing reconstruction took place without any modification of the urban or architectural forms. After WWII, the densification continued through horizontal extension patterns, curiously avoiding verticality.
<figure><img src="image_281.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 8] Lens-Liévin-area in 2023</figcaption></figure>

Due to external influences, the 'decline' of mining activities impairs the economy, the population, housing and the territory.

After a very short period when coal mining had been at the centre of French and European economic and political development, the liquidation and dissolution of its industry was decided in the 1970s and the last pits were definitely closed in 1990.

The process of winding-up included the deconstruction of the extraction sites, with at the time shocking images of the demolitions of the pits by explosives. The fact that some of the infrastructures remained in place was mostly due to the lack of the necessary means to destroy them.

The impact on housing was twofold: no new housing was built and the existing dwellings were disinvested by lack of maintenance or deconstructed following the decrease of the population.
"Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines,
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines." (Travis 1947)

The cartography produced in this paper draws up a state of play of the coalscape in the region of Lens-Liévin. It unfolds the development of the mining industry and its production of infrastructures and housing following the inherent logics of coal extraction. It pictures settlements and buildings as a part of an industrial machinery that needs to be controlled and optimised. As such, the coalscape introduces and establishes a distinct and coherent territorial system that can be understood at different scales.

<figure><img src="image_282.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 9] Postcard of Loos-en-Gohelle, about 1915</figcaption></figure>

Regarding the 'scale of the territory', the impact of the administrative organisation of the companies becomes visible through time and space. Initially only supposed to divide the underground resources, the concessions have become more and more persistent figures on the surface. The implementation and development of headquarters, transportation routes, spoil heaps and housing clearly identify their centre and limits. While the railways in north-south direction connect the different parts of the same concession, the borders are occupied by wasteland or traditional urban areas. The entire territory of the coal mining stripe in northern France is thus divided in segments.

A clear distinction appears at a territorial level between the centres of the concessions and their boundaries. Indeed, with the increase of the size of the pits on and under the surface, and due to the optimisation of the transportation of coal and workforce, the centre of the coal mining stripe and the concessions are highly densified while its peripheries remain undeveloped.
<figure><img src="image_283.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 10] Postcard of Loos-en-Gohelle, about 1915</figcaption></figure>

At the 'scale of the settlements', the spatial structures of traditional and mining settlements can be described as entities that have very little interactions, just like oil and water. They coexist in three ways:

Firstly, the mining estates developed and coexisted in parallel with traditional parts of the pre-existing towns with little or no interference. For example, in the case of Loos-en-Gohelle, initially a small village but a large municipality, the historic centre remained uninfluenced by the mining activities and its growth follows a traditional concentric model. Nevertheless, within its administrative borders but not physically connected to the town centre, the mining company of Lens started building more and more pits and housing estates. Today the municipality is still divided in clear districts of either traditional or mining housing and has to face challenges that differ according to their different characteristics and needs.

Secondly, the small rural pre-existing towns transformed into important mining cities. Through time, the historic villages situated in the central mining areas were absorbed by the infrastructures of the industry which were located everywhere inside and around its centre. The traditional rural fabric merged with new constructed estates into a polycentric urbanised area and the mental image of the town is fully substituted. In the case of Liévin the municipal institutions were relocated to take this evolution into account and the city council resides today in the headquarters of the mining company. Thirdly, some pre-existing towns remained completely immune to the industrial revolution taking place in their surroundings. In the peripheral areas of the coal mining stripe and its concessions, the size of the industrial activities and their infrastructures remained less important and had little impact on the rural ecosystem. Hence, the agricultural activities kept on following their own development. The rural and mining settlements developed within their proper logics. While the expansion of the traditional towns followed a model of concentric growth around an existing core or linear growth along existing roads, the housing estates of the mining industry are developed as autonomous areas. They are located in good distance of existing towns and propose their own centralities around the pit and other institutions related to the mining activities.

In the most urbanised areas, they constitute a continuous urban fabric composed by individual housing in which the style of the building itself does not seem to be of any importance. Regardless the small variations in facades, building and urban plans, the miners houses constitute a clear and homogenous identity distinct but still related to the traditional agricultural housing of the territory.
"And pray when I'm dead and my ages shall roll

That my body would blacken and turn into gold" (Cash 1968)

This research establishes a new typological classification of the forms and figures of miners housing
constructed by the coal extraction industry in northern France. The analysis traces the co-
development of industry and housing through the history of 19th and 20th centuries. It identifies the
components of the coalscape and describes their characteristics and relation to the entire machinery.
Thus it links the housing to territory on which it is set.

Regarding this seminary, it is important to underline the inherent logics of the system of the coal
mining industry and its territorial and urban planning. The availability of the resource and the
organisation of its underground extraction shapes the face of the ground and generates a territory
with a distinct identity. On the surface, this coalscape also encounters other logics and forms of socio-
economic organisation. In the rivalry of ideas and the context of increasingly limited soil, the urban
and architectural models and typologies become powerful tools used to materialise and manifest the
social order.

Further work will focus on a smaller scale where spatial structures are more adequately represented.
On this urban and architectural level, it will be interesting to see whether and how for instance the
position within the historic development of the industry on the one hand and within the mining
territory on the other hand had influenced the conception, construction and maintenance of housing.
The methods, tool and results of this research can be discussed with respect to other territories on
the transeuropean coal mining ribbon. Does the different political and economic contexts produce
different kinds of coalscape and other typologies of housing? How can the different territories
formerly in a competitive situation, benefit from a common background and identity in the relatively
new context of the European Union?

Most importantly, how can the understanding and knowledge of the relationships between housing
and territory, linked together by the resource, be used to accompany and shape the contemporary
transformations of the territory, especially affordable and sustainable housing?

Is the current focus on tourism, which is the attraction of outsiders as a financial resource, enough
to provide sufficient wealth for the territory and income for its habitants? Which other resource(s)
can be activated taking into account the necessary ecological shifts of economics and urbanism in
order to create a new living, but post-carbon ecosystem?

Bibliography

Baudelle, G. (1994) ‘Le système spatial de la mine – L’exemple du bassin houiller du Nord-Pas-de-Calais’, Paris: Université Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Bouroz, A. (1969) ‘Le Carbonifère du Nord de la France’, *Anales de la Société géologique du Nord*, Lille: Société géologique du Nord, p. 47-65.

Caniggia, G. et Maffei, G-L. (2001) ‘Architectural Composition and Building Typology: Interpreting Basic Building’, Florence: Alinea.

Cash, J. (06.05.1968) ‘Dark as a dungeon’, *Live at Folsom*, Folsom State Prison: Columbia Records

Cuisenier, J., Raulin, H. et Calame, F. (1988) ‘L’architecture rurale française Nord Pas-de-Calais’, Lyon: La Manufacture.

Demorgon, M., Depaule, J-C. et Panerai, P. (2009) ‘Analyse Urbaine’, Mercuès: Parenthèse.

Devillers, C. (1974) ‘Typologie de l’Habitat et morphologie urbaine’, *L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui* #174, p.18-22

Devillers, C. et Huet, B. (1981) ‘Le Creusot: naissance et développement d’une ville industrielle’, 1782-1914, Seyssel: Champ Vallon.

Elias, N. (1985) ‘La société de cour’, Paris: Flammarion.

Hein, C. (2016) ‘Analyzing the Palimpsestic Petroleumscape of Rotterdam’, *Global Urban History*

Le Maner, Y. (1995) ‘Du coron à la cité, 1850 – 1950’, Lewarde: Centre historique minier.

Minot J.-M. and Vivien D. (2022) ‘Le groupe d’exploitation de Lens-Liévin’, Avesnes-le-sec: Les éditions de l’Escaut

Mission Bassin Minier (2012) ‘Bassin minier du Nord-Pas de Calais - Patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO'

Mission Bassin Minier (2016) ‘L’habitat minier en région nord – Pas de Calais. Histoire et évolution 1825 – 1970, tome 1’

Mission Bassin Minier (2016) ‘Les paysages du Bassin minier Nord – Pas de Calais’

Muratori, S. (1959) ‘Studi per una operante storia urbana di Venezia’, Rome: Libreria dello Stato

Neurath, O. (1931) ‘Atlas Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft’ Vienne

Travis, M. (1947) ‘Dark as a dungeon’, *Folk Songs of the Hills*, Hollywood: Capitol Records
# Landscapes of Migration. Displacement and the ecologies of urban ruins in mining settlements. The case of Limburg, Belgium.

Jacopo Zani

LUS Fellow - ETH Zurich

Supervisor: To be defined

Expected thesis defence: October, 2026

Zani@arch.ethz.ch

Narratives on former mining settlements frequently rely on a distinction between a current state of 'disruption', against the background of a 'glorious' industrial past. In the context of the Belgian Limburg, scholars have typically investigated such mining settlements (also called *Citées* – singular *Cité*) from the perspective of large-scale political and ideological constructs. However, this perspective excludes the reading of more 'unfixed' actors and their territorial articulations – i.e. migrant workers, temporary architectures, and displaced matter. On the contrary, this contribution focuses on mining settlements, from the perspective of marginalized displaced 'Others'. Thus, to grasp the condition of movement and precarity that they share, I introduce the notion of *Landscapes of Migration*. Landscapes of Migration emerge from exceptional phenomena of displacement, as side effects of highly technocratic environments. The main hypothesis of this work is that mining settlements, precisely because of such intense phenomena of migration, also inherit important forms of global, yet specific ecologies. Moreover, I further posit that such heterogeneous ecologies emerges from a relationship that exists between migration and the ruins of highly technocratic environments. This underpins, the necessity for a semantic shift in their representations, moving away from detractive vocabularies towards considering ruination as part of an ongoing process of territorial transformation. As a consequence, the aim of the dissertation is twofold. On the one hand to acknowledge the agency of marginalized 'Others' within the histories of mining settlements. On the other hand, to stress how such mining settlements beside their past of violent extractions, can also represent an important space for imagining new forms of cohabitation.

## Introduction

The phasing out of the coal industry has confronted mining settlements across Europe with a series of long-standing and complex problems. In these contexts, the decline of the mining industry, that have historically represented an almost univocal driver of territorial development, extends far beyond the problems associated with the loss of workplaces (Smets, 1990). In the case of Belgium, the social and economic struggles of the mining region of Limburg, have often consolidated in a stigmatization of former mining towns as 'decaying' workers' suburbs (Loeckx and Smets, 1991). Here, a sharp distinction between a tragically 'disrupted' landscapes and a 'glorious' industrial past, generally characterizes the imageries surrounding these towns.

<figure><img src="image_284.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 1] Plan of the Garden City of Waterschei by architect A. Blomme.</figcaption></figure>

Source: De Meulder, B. De drie gedaanten van waterschei. Cité industrielle, cité jardin, banlieu radieuse.
Scholars have engaged in writing histories of these settlements already since the ending of the last mining activities (Heynen, 1991; Smets, 1977; Swyngedouw, 1996), but the perspective of large-scale political and ideological constructs still seems to be a predominant analytical standpoint. By framing studies through different forms of industrial paternalism and capital organization, such histories tend to approach land and its inhabitants within the ‘fixed’ representations of the grand urban schemes – appealing to imageries that range from early utopian models such as the Garden City to the post-Fordist model of *Banlieu Radieuse* (Aureli and Tattara, 2018; De Meulder, 1991; De Meulder et al., 1999; Ryckewaert, 2011). On the other hand, I argue that these perspectives have pushed outside of the spotlight, the reading of other important ‘unfixed’ actors and their territorial articulations – such as migrant workers, their housing in ‘temporary’ structures, or the displaced matter with which they interacted. Thus, with this contribution I attempt to question how tracking their movement can contextualize industrial and post-industrial urban environments within wider geographies. Approaching environmental, social, and technological issues from the perspective of minor-scale displaced ‘Others’.

## The ruins of mining settlements and the *Landscape of Migration*

Mining towns are settlements that materialize through exceptional phenomena of displacement. Displacement of matter, human bodies, but also labour, and more generally cultures, all have in common a character of continuous instability and movement. To grasp the territorial implications of such a shared condition of mobility, throughout my dissertation I am formulating the notion of *Landscape of Migration* as a methodological framework. Thus, the main hypothesis of this work is that mining settlements, precisely because of such intense phenomena of migration, also inherit important forms of global, yet specific ecologies. Moreover, I further posit that the emergence of such heterogeneous ecologies is sustained by a relationship that exists between phenomena of migration and the ruins of highly technocratic environments. In fact, as former mining settlements become increasingly associated with a tragic image of toxic dumps, abandoned industries and social segregation, the conceptualization of ruins becomes a central concern. Here, the study of highly technocratic environments needs to be reconnected with the idea of their obsolescence and decay (Picon, 2000), while the idea of ruination demands an important conceptual renewal (Tsing, 2021). In this sense, the notion of *Landscape of Migration* attempts to construct a different understanding of industrialized and post-industrialized contexts. Offering an approach where the material, social and technological ‘rubbles’ of modern industrial sites, despite being built on histories of exclusion and violence, can also becomes grounds where new ecologies can be imagined. This underpins the necessity for a semantic shift in representations of mining settlements, moving away from detractive vocabularies – i.e. wastelands, brownfields – towards considering ruination as part of an ongoing process of territorial transformation. Methodologically speaking, tracking migrations becomes a way to develop an understanding of how displaced humans and non-humans have intertwined in forms of cohabitation, and how they shape and articulate the territory ‘in the rubbles’ of capitalist development (Stoetzer, 2022).

The framing of uneven effects of industrial development through pathologizing approaches has frequently reinforced harming and oppressive structures, as the depiction of entire communities as ‘broken’ or ‘disrupted’ often comes with other damage (TenHoor and Varner, 2022). Here, I propose the notion of *Landscapes of Migration* as an opposite methodological framework, intersecting environmental and social concerns with the idea of an ‘ecological pluriverse’ emerging from recent nonhuman and postcolonial conceptions of cities (Gandy, 2022; Stoetzer, 2022). Thinking mining settlements within moving matter, humans and cultures, can offer an alternative methodology that co-constructs histories from within contemporary legacies of industrialization. Thus, I attempt to track the movements of marginalized ‘Others’ - such as unfertile soils, guest workers or scrap construction materials - beyond their commodity status in the well-established ‘grand narratives’ of capitalist growth (Hutton, 2020). The testimonies given by material artifacts, personal objects, oral evidence, and other ‘unofficial’ archives also assume great importance in the reading of such ‘non-fixed’ livelihoods. In such reading all my own positionalities come to matter differently within the various encounters I make. As a foreign researcher on the one hand, but also as the grandson of a former guest worker in Belgium on the other.
My aim with this research is twofold. On the first hand, is to acknowledge the agency of such
marginalized displaced ‘others’ within the writing of histories on mining settlements. Bringing to
the foreground questions of material displacement, precarious domesticity, migrant labour and
infrastructural affordances. Stressing how mining settlements, besides being shaped by histories of
exclusion and violent extraction, can also represent an important space for the forging of alliances
and new forms of cohabitation. Secondly, by constructing on the notion of *Landscape of Migration* as
a methodological framework, my aim is also that of producing a new vocabulary for the
representation of urban ruins in both industrial and post-industrial contexts. Developing an
understanding of how material and cultural migrations can produce ecologies that speaks to a wider
and more diversified geography. In my dissertation, I am investigating how the reading of landscape
through migration allows to articulate mining settlements from a different environmental, social
and technological perspective. Specifically, in this paper I will focus on the reading of the first two.
Articulating soil movements in relation to questions of land fertilization on a regional scale, mining
and construction waste in relation to questions of housing on the scale of the domestic space, and
labour migration in relation to cultural patterns on an urban scale.

Migrating soils

In Limburg, the most prominent environmental trace of underground mining exploitations is certainly the large quantity of matter that is being moved from subsoil to the surface. The presence of such displaced matter still characterizes the so-called ‘drosscapes’ of mining settlements (Berger, 2006), but the way that extracted coal, sand and clay have articulated their space is often overlooked. On the opposite hand, looking at the mining landscape from within material displacement, means being confronted with the idea that what is extracted, is also often accumulated somewhere else (Frichot, 2019). Thus, a wider understanding of how extracted coal articulated the territory, necessarily needs to be framed not only within the traditional notion of *extraction*, but also through its opposite idea of *insertion* on the mining landscape. Here, the question of land fertilization is of central importance and builds on a history where sandy soils and coal processing by-products intersect with the rich ecologies of dismissed industrial forests.

<figure><img src="image_285.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_286.png" /></figure>

[fig. 2] One of the photographs taken by the botanist J. Massart representing 'The heathlands and Valley of the Stiemerbeek, between Kuylen and Winterslag'. A closer look shows a man collecting heather and the growing mine of Waterschei in the Background.

Source. Recollecting Landscapes. https://www.recollectinglandscapes.be/nl-1904-massart-genk-54
Before the excavation of the first coal in 1901, the pre-industrial sandy landscape of Limburg attracted the positivistic interest of many botanists, photographers and painters. Their documentation depicts a territory that was already deeply marked by intense material movements. The sandy heathlands of Limburg in fact, had a central role in providing the organic material at the base for pre-industrial forms of land fertilization, through which the region's inhabitation was rendered possible (Notteboom, n.d.).

In the second half of the 19th century however, state-driven narratives of capitalist expansion worked to construct an image of Limburg as a ‘deserted wastelands’. The conceptualization of the region as a void, along with its symbolic and cultural meanings, served as a tool for land dispossession. By rendering the sandy landscape of the region as an ‘underdeveloped’ frontier, such narratives sustained large-scale expropriation campaigns and what the government often named as ‘*La mise en valeur*’ (the improvement) of Limburg (Monkhouse, 1949). Thus, the transformation of the region into a profit-making territory, materialized through large afforestation projects for wood production, but conifers were the only tree that could be grown profitably on these sandy soils.

<figure><img src="image_287.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 3] The forests of Limburg in 1989. Photograph taken from the 'slag heap' of Waterschei.
Source: Geheugen van Genk.</figcaption></figure>

The opening of the mines in 1910 came with other drastic changes. The controlled space of the garden cities materialized through the company's need to provide housing for labourers, while dealing with the environmental and social effects of mining exploitations. While the 'blossoming' gardens of the mining towns were celebrated with pride as a great achievement of the companies (Adam, 1924), the induced fertility of the land was mainly possible through the extensive use of cheap fertilizer. Here the by-products of coal processing assumed a central role. Ammonia, deriving from coal gasification formed the base for the growing fertility of the land. Garden cities grew hand in hand with the production of mining waste. Thus, in the 1960s when the mining industry stopped expanding, the industrial forests had lost their profitability falling into disuse, while favourably meeting the new fertile soils of the region. The spreading of these forests over the territory brings to ask how mining and its by-products have articulated the Limburg territory in other ways than the simple juxtaposition of underdeveloped 'wastelands' and 'blossoming' garden cities. As new heterogeneous ecologies emerge through unintended outcomes of the capitalist development of the region, opening space to richer social and environmental meanings.
## Migrating Houses

Shifting the focus to an urban scale, the circulation of extracted matter within the mining settlements of Limburg has the question of housing at its core. Representations of Garden Cities often depict them as 'clean' spaces separated from the underprivileged, but they do not consider the lives that unfolded within their poorer edges, where inhabitation often assumed precarious forms. However, from an investigation made in 1956 by the Genk police on 'informal' housing, a persistent unease of local authorities with what the document calls 'isolated, shabby, unhealthy' dwellings emerges quite clearly.<fnref n="1" /> The disposal of the extracted matter is again here, a central question. In this section of my work therefore, I focus on so-called 'informal' dwellings placing them in relation to the circulation of waste, produced by the modern development of the region – waste in the form of mining scraps as well as scrap construction material. Following the migratory trajectories of such material beyond the exhaustion of its perceived use-value, I look at how it served the construction of spaces of exclusion, but also served various forms of resistance.

Coal scraps, bricks, wood and metallic components were accumulated in large 'heaps' – also named *Terrils* - and often circulated in the settlements under various forms, including construction material. The material contained within these dumps was re-mined many times and in many different ways – from small-scale digging to large-scale industrial operations – but often interacted with the domestic environments of those who lived in the margins of the settlements. The small-scale digging of material was developed into a form of sustenance for many families. Mainly performed by unemployed inhabitants, women and kids, such activity however came with a triple extraction – of soils, waste and human health (Le Roux and Hecht, 2020). The performers, in fact, exposed themselves to various risks from landslides to contact with toxic particles. Although such 'minor-scale' practices had less visible territorial impacts than their parallel industrial-scale operations, their agency equally shaped the lived space of the settlements. Enhancing forms of mutual care and sustenance, within the precarious inhabitation that took place in the margins of the settlements.

<figure><img src="image_288.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 4] Women and kids collecting bricks and coal scraps from the *Terril* of Waterschei.
Source: Geheugen van Genk.</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="1">¹ 'Fortunately, in our municipality we do not have those conditions in the big cities, where one sees mighty and beautiful buildings along the street, but where one comes in the immediate vicinity along narrow alleys in dirty slums, where misery and misery can be found on doors and windows. The cases we know here are mostly isolated, shabby, unhealthy dwellings, which are preferably built up or muddled up in remote places.' Source: Gementebestuur Van Genk Politie Jaarverlag 1956. Translated from Dutch by the author.</footnote>
Wasted soils were also deployed by the mining companies as a cheap solution to the housing problem. The economy of waste reuse avoided them to face the troubles of high transportation costs while dealing with the post-war fast-growing labour migration. A mixture of wood, sand, and clay stabilized with Portland cement, could be cheaply used to produce construction blocks of composite materials.<fnref n="2" /> These blocks often substituted quickly deteriorating wooden structures in the housing of the working newcomers, while perfectly complying with the modern trope of a solid house. From the Company's perspective, this technique allowed to solve both questions of housing shortage, and the disposal of degraded soils.

<figure><img src="image_289.png" /><figcaption>[fig. 5] Tenements in Durisol blocks and wood in the mining settlement of Zwartberg. Source: Geheugen van Genk.</figcaption></figure>

However, the contracts for guest workers still often imposed very unstable conditions. For instance, an entire family could be displaced in case of a miner's injury or death. Therefore, many were forced to reclaim living spaces in the margins of the settlements – between polluted *Terrils*, railways and factories – and shape there their domestic environment. Here, the components from older tenements, circulated as an important source of construction material. Older wooden structures were often sold by the mining companies to private owners that asked for high prices for their rent. On the other hand, such components also served in the construction of other sorts of dwellings that challenged the controlling structures imposed by the mining companies<fnref n="3" />. Similarly, older brick houses, abandoned because of land subsidence provided shelter and provisional habitation<fnref n="4" />.

<footnote n="2">2 In the tenements built in Waterschei during the 1950s for hosting the Italian and Spanish miners, Durisol was a ubiquitous material. Composed by a mixture of wood fiber, cement and clay, it perfectly matched the arid environments of the Limburg heathlands.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 The Police record of 1956 also talks of movable and non-movable caravans inhabited by those who did not want to 'register' within a specific municipality. Source: Gementebestuur Van Genk Politie Jaarverlag 1956. Translated from Dutch by the author.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 The oldest Garden City dwellings in Winterslag, were abandoned because built too close to the Terril. However, they remained inhabited until their demolition.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_290.png" /></figure>

[fig. 6] The old Garden City of Winterslag, abandoned by the mining company because of the vicinity to the 'scrap heap'. Source: Geheugen van Genk.

## Migrating Workers

‘Grand narratives’ of miners’ migration to Belgium frequently fix guest workers as inert labour force exchanged for some bags of coal. Life within the Garden Cities’ tenements was meant to comply with the modern nuclear family norms and lifestyles, rigidly regulated through the control of the company’s paternalistic structures. However, their urban space is increasingly understood by historians as a ground of mediation between different class and gender struggles, and the industrialists’ efforts in directing these forces (Crawford, 1995). Though, the condition of precarity that displaced inhabitants had to face in the margins of mining settlements is often overlooked. Here, aspiration to better life conditions certainly remained ubiquitously present (Cumoli, 2009), but the understanding of a shared struggle also pushed actors to work together across cultural and class differences. These spaces can act as the background where important forms of resistance and mutual care are also communally shaped (Alimia, 2022). Thus, in this section of my dissertation, I track workers’ migration to Belgium with a focus on the Italian case, arguing that behind the histories of subjugation to modern industrial dictates, the heterogeneous background of the displaced inhabitants also enhanced important forms of cultural reconfigurations.

The processes of industrialization of the two countries (Italy and Belgium) are shaped by fluxes of labour. Such displacement played an important role in sustaining the Belgian mining industry, although it was regulated by norms that would often make permanence and labour contracts extremely unstable (Cumoli, 2009). However, official migration channels were often paralleled by unofficial strategies placed in act by the mining companies to insure the migration of the most ‘calm’ subjects – excluding for instance workers from specific regions or those who took part in strikes. As a consequence, the rigid bureaucracy soon developed into a reinforcement of ‘informal’ recruiting networks, bringing to a reconciliation of communities within the edges of the mining towns. As the majority of displaced workers came from agricultural contexts, the relative isolation given by the margins of the town sustained a continuity with ‘rural’ social patterns where access to land was developed as a fundamental resource (Cumoli, 2009). However, it also allowed for important practices of care and political resistance – for instance, these spaces often became the background of exchanges with doctors or trade unionists – in forms that escaped the rigid mechanisms of control that regulated life in the Garden Cities.
## Towards new forms of cohabitation

With these examples I am attempting to reconnect an understanding of highly technocratic landscapes with the perspective of their legacies and ‘side effects’ of modern capitalist exploitations. Sandy heathlands that are transformed by the extensive use of fertilizer, also can sustain the emergence of new ecologies in former industrial forests. Scrap material that were used as means to exclude the underprivileged, also developed into forms of domestic disobedience. Migrating workers shaped cultural reconfigurations despite precarity and the companies’ efforts in controlling their social lives. Here, I attempted to question how such *Landscapes of Migration*, through their cosmopolitan but highly specific characters can unsettle the organizational logics of modernity (Gandy, 2022). Focusing on how the forms of cohabitation that emerges within them, can produce a counter-discourse to conceptualizations of material and nonmaterial ruins as simple sites waiting to be erased.

## References

* Adam, D., 1924. Campine Mining Villages Resemble Garden Cities. Coal Age 26, 283-286.

* Alimia, S., 2022. Refugee Cities. How Afghans Changed Urban Pakistan. University of Pennsylvania Press.

* Aureli, P.V., Tattara, M., 2018. Retrofitting Suburban Settlements. A project for Limburg 5.

* Berger, A., 2006. Drosscape: wasting land in urban America, 1st ed. ed. Princeton Architectural Press, New York.

* Crawford, M., 1995. Building the Workingman's Paradise. The Design of American Company Towns. Verso, London, New York.

* Cumoli, F., 2009. Dai campi al sottosuolo. Reclutamento e strategie di adattamento al lavoro dei minatori italiani in Belgio. Storicamente. https://doi.org/10.1473/stor290

* De Meulder, B., 1991. De drie gedaanten van waterschei. Cité industrielle, cité jardin, banlieu radieuse. Tijdschr. Voor Geschied. Van Tech. En Ind. Cult. 9. https://doi.org/10.21825/tgtic.v9i36.7971

* De Meulder, B., Schreurs, J., Cock, A., Notteboom, B., 1999. Patching up the belgian urban landscape. OASE.

* Frichot, H., 2019. Dirty Theory: Troubling architecture. AADR.

* Gandy, M., 2022. Natura Urbana. The MIT Press.

* Heynen, H., 1991. Mijnterren wordt recreatiepark. Het ERC-project te Waterschei. Archipel 18-19.

* Hutton, J., 2020. Reciprocal Landscapes; Stories of Material Movements. Routledge.

* Le Roux, H., Hecht, G., 2020. Bad Earth [WWW Document]. E-Flux. URL https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/accumulation/345106/bad-earth/ (accessed 5.12.23).

* Loeckx, A., Smets, M., 1991. Geschiedenis op zoek naar waardig vervolg. Studie van de mijnnederzettingen in Waterschei, Winterslag en Eisden. Koning Boudewijnstichting, Brussel.

* Monkhouse, F.J., 1949. The Belgian Kempeland. Liverpool University Press.

* Notteboom, B., n.d. "Science in Pursuit of Truth": Jean Massart's Balancing act between Geobotany, Aesthetics and Sociopolitics, in: Recollecting Landscapes. Rephotography, Memory and Transformation 1904-1980-2004-1014.

* Picon, A., 2000. Anxious Landscapes: From the Ruin to Rust. Grey Room 1, 64-83. https://doi.org/10.1162/152638100750173065

* Ryckewaert, M., 2011. Building the Economic Backbone of the Belgian Welfare State. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam.

* Smets, M., 1990. Una Tassonomia della De-industrializzazione. Rassegna 8-13.

* Smets, M., 1977. L'avènement de la cité-jardin en Belgique. Histoire de l'habitat social en Belgique de 1830 à 1930. Pierre Mardaga, éditeur, Bruxelles.

* Stoetzer, B., 2022. Ruderal Ecologies. Ecologies of Migration, Race and Urban Nature in Berlin. Duke University Press, Durnham and London.

* Swyngedouw, E., 1996. Reconstructing Citizenship, the Re-scaling of the State and the New Authoritarianism: Closing the Belgian Mines. Urban Stud. 33, 1499-1521. https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098966772

* TenHoor, M., Varner, J., 2022. Mattering Toxics and Making Toxics Matter in Architecture and Landscape Histories. Aggregate 10. https://doi.org/10.53965/WADN3098

* Tsing, A.L., 2021. The mushroom at the end of the world: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins, New paperback printing. ed. Princeton University Press, Princeton Oxford.
III.b
Commons and nature

*Rewriting the urban commons. A sustainable approach to urban logistics* (p.418)

Fattorelli Samuel, IUAVenezia (IT)

*Visualising fluid territories: settling in and within shifts in the chars of Assam, India* (p.424)

Swagata Das, KULeuven (BE)

*Dakar is leaking. Mapping changes on the territory of urban drainage services through time* (p.443)

Van den Bruel Evelien, UCLouvain (BE)

*Hopeful environmental stories. Limits and contradictions of ecological restoration pilot-projects in the Venice Lagoon* (p.455)

Chouairi Amina, IUAVenezia (IT)
# Rewriting the urban commons. A sustainable approach to urban logistics

Samuel Fattorelli

Università Iuav di Venezia

Supervisor: Stefano Munarin

Expected thesis defence: June, 2025

sfattorelli@iuav.it

This research investigates how the cycle logistics affects the design and transformation of streets and public spaces. As part of an industrial PhD programme, the study considers the urban practices that affect the space for the movement of people and goods, in the broader framework of the ‘rewriting of the city’, as a critical transformative action of what already exists. Recognising the role of the bicycle in creating more sustainable, healthy and inclusive societies, the contribution interweaves several perspectives: accessibility to services, active mobility and decarbonisation. In this sense, sustainable logistics is seen as an opportunity to improve quality of life and urban well-being. The study observes the changes in the use of space promoted by citizens, companies and third sector organisations. It analyses how their practices relate to projects for the redesign of space for movement and the creation of multifunctional spaces related to cycle logistics and active mobility.

## Re-writing the streets and public spaces

Recently many urban practices and transformations of spaces have been introduced in contemporary cities, not least the emergence of several green urban logistics initiatives, such as the transport of goods and people by bicycle. As part of the PhD PON programme ‘Research and Innovation’ 2014-2020, this study explores how to cycle logistics characterise contemporary society, influencing the design and transformation of streets, working and living spaces.

Starting from a reinterpretation of the specific conditions of the case studies within the broader framework of the ‘re-writing of the city’, the research observes the physical transformations produced by different actors. ‘Re-writing the city’ is understood as a critical transformative action on what already exists. *Re-writing* is a metaphor for the ongoing work of redesigning of the streets and public space, where the transformative action is conducted through both top-down and bottom-up projects. This reimagining and redesigning is part of a long process that began with the urban renewal and the ‘hygienist revolution’ of the nineteenth century (Zucconi 2022), when technological innovations emerged that undermined the consolidated landscape of the street that seemed forever unchanging. The long process of urban transformation continued in the twentieth century with the cycle plans – begun in Delft in 1979 – and, more recently with projects aimed at ensuring greater urban liveability, reducing the speed of vehicles in urban and peri-urban areas and improving accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists, such as in Barcelona with the *superillas* or ‘Milan City 30’ announced for 2024. The study then looks at innovations to improve urban spaces for cycling as a vector of well-being, making cities more accessible and equitable (Martens 2017).

The keys to interpreting the research are related to the physical and functional transformations of public space, referred to the material thickness of the ground, as well as the semantic change of the role of streets in the use of the city – of connection, meeting and coexistence of multiple flows. Particularly in the last century, streets and urban space have been reserved mainly for the circulation of cars, to the partial exclusion of various modes of mobility. The research hypothesis pursued in this sense is the need for a ‘new project’ for the street (Secchi 2011), whose forms and strategies must be dynamic and adaptive, favouring non-specialised spaces, linked to multimodal systems and integrated mobility, and taking possible *mixité* as a guiding parameter.

The choice of the context of interest is based on the exploration of possible forms of co-presence – or conflict – with other forms of mobility in contemporary urban spaces, following the adaptation of places of movement, also taking into account the different mobile populations that did not exist before, such as people with disabilities and the elderly. To test these hypotheses, case studies have been selected in which different local actors, such as administrations, cycle logistics companies and citizens’ associations, implement joint projects or experimental initiatives for the transformation and reuse of public spaces.
## Objectives and methodology

According to analyses of the socio-spatial quality of streets and public spaces, light sustainable urban logistics is used as a tool and lens to observe urban transformations in terms of accessibility to services, active mobility and decarbonisation. This is done by examining case studies with different degrees of urbanity from the perspective of porosity – the ability to connect spaces, objects and subjects (Haraway 2019), to hold together movements of percolation and proliferation (Tosi 2002). This is also an opportunity to explore possible forms of coexistence or co-presence of different mobile populations. In fact, interactions between co-present actors not necessarily in collaboration, trigger opportunities for generative conflict. To study this, the research will be supported by the collaboration of companies in the sector, in cooperation with administrations and associations, with action-research pathways also involving local communities.

The innovative practices of cycle logistics, together with socio-demographic changes, the dynamics of migration, the ageing of the population and the search for greater accessibility, require a redesign of the existing urban heritage, of the spaces for movement and of the facilities for urban well-being. These proposals are closely linked to the need for access to local services and active mobility – walking, cycling, public transport – as well as the need for freedom of movement and use of open spaces for leisure and social activities, work and study. In this panorama, transport services by cargo bike can be found, which, through situated practices, offer potential contributions to improving urban liveability, mitigating the impact of the goods transport sector and contributing to the diffusion of circular economy systems. The observational perspective adopted in the research considers innovative cycle logistic practices as opportunities to promote the presence of symbiotic, non-dissipative forms of organisation that guarantee greater equity and inclusivity in similar spaces of action and interaction (Tsing 2015).

In order to study this, the research will include several periods of cooperation with companies that are active in the field of cycle logistics. The selection of case studies ranges from different types of organisations to specific business activities carried out with the use of cargo bikes. Some are last-mile bike courier companies. Others are associations developing innovative activities related to urban circular economy processes. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with these subjects, shadowing their activities in order to tell, according to the ethnographic method, what services they offer and how they relate to the urban space in the contexts in which they operate. In some cases, in order to have a deeper contact with the field, it was decided to work directly as a volunteer in the companies.

## Cycle logistics and the urban commons

Recent technological innovations and urban practices (many of which are consumer-oriented) have increased last-mile delivery, which in medium-sized European cities is carried out by oversized vehicles travelling short distances (Wrighton 2016). Over and above the behavioural changes encouraged during the closure period, door-to-door transport and urban delivery, which has been growing steadily in recent years, has now reached a significant level of intensity (Mastrandrea 2021). In response, various initiatives are being taken by administrations or innovative companies to promote cycling and to work with cargo bikes as a substitute for heavier vehicles in urban movement of people and goods (Schliwa 2015).

What the research seeks to reflect is that the development of goods and passenger transport by bicycle in urban areas is not only an innovative transport solution – particularly effective in dense contexts thanks to its flexibility – or a strategy for decarbonisation and energy saving. Above all, cycle logistics is an opportunity to radically rethink the road and urban public space. Not only because it uses very efficient types of cargo bikes for first and last mile transport, which in the short term could face competition from other technologies that could eventually replace them. In this sense, therefore, it will not be the 'new paradigm' that defines the city (Rifkin 2011), as the automobile did in the twentieth century, transforming urban space and conurbations, effectively becoming the means of movement that dictates the dimension of the space of movement. Instead, cycle logistics could play an important role in promoting social innovation and finding ways to rethink urban space. Thanks to its economic characteristics, it is accessible and adaptable to different types of spaces and to people of different professions, ages and physical conditions. It allows them to mix the public space that has been specialised by the car. From this perspective, the
practice of cycle logistics can contribute to respond to the global challenges of innovation and accessibility in order to reduce inequalities and develop more sustainable cities and communities, according to the objectives of the United Nations 2030 Agenda (SDGs 9, 10 and 11).

In addition, besides projects to redesign spaces for movement, new shared spaces are emerging, multifunctional spaces used in relation to sustainable mobility and intermodality practices, such as *dark stores*, *velostations* or neighbourhood logistics micro-hubs. These ‘multitasking infrastructures’ (Rappaport 2022) are implemented on the basis of principles of social justice and in response to the environmental crisis, often in cooperation with companies and local communities. These are inhabitable places, not just places to store or dispatch freights, sell goods or serve as intermodal transport stations. Such spaces are used for cooperative practices, infrastructures that therefore support the people who have access to them. These multifunctional spaces are connected to the network of paths for active mobility and host services for the use of the community. In this sense, they are urban commons.

## The Strasbourg case study

The research observes a number of experiences in European cities where bottom-up innovation initiatives and cycle logistics companies are active and where experiments have been promoted by the administration (as in the case of those involved in the City Changer Cargo Bike project). In Strasbourg, for example, the administration encouraged the use of cargo bikes by lending them out for a trial period and by setting up special parking areas in front of some public buildings in the city centre. Following these trials, they were incorporated into the fleet of bikes available through the Vélhop rental service.

Among the various cycle logistics services offered in the city, since 2018, the association Sikle - Les Composteurs de Strasbourg has set up a network to collect food waste from professionals. At the beginning of 2023, it has around a hundred partners (restaurants, canteens, caterers, etc.) and collects eight tonnes of waste per week, tripling its work compared to 2020. Sikle has forged a partnership with a market gardener near the city, which has provided him with a composting area. Two other composting microsites are located in family gardens, one to the south and one to the north of the Strasbourg *hyper centre*. The collection of organic waste is carried out using five cargo bikes with two 250W motors, which can pull one or two trailers with a maximum payload of 400kg. The team consists of nine men and three women, and the composting process is supported by a team of volunteers. There are 40 rounds per week with an average distance of 15 km.

Since 2016, the separate collection of organic waste in restaurants is mandatory for those producing more than 10 tonnes per year. From 1 September 2016, article 102 of the “Loi de transition énergétique pour la croissance verte” (energy transition law for green growth) requires all public establishments and all local authorities to implement a process to combat food waste in catering services<fnref n="1" />. Furthermore, from 1 January 2023, the threshold has been lowered to 5 tonnes of organic waste per year, and from 31 December 2023, all administrations will have to ensure the separate collection of organic waste at source, regardless of the annual amount of organic waste produced. In addition to triggering a virtuous recycling process, those who use the collection service offered by Sikle will obtain the recovery of organic waste on site, without having to set up a designated storage area, and will not autonomously transport the waste to a recycling centre. The collection, transport and composting of organic waste is carried out entirely by means of cargo bikes and with the support of volunteers, who take turns with the employees [fig.1].

<footnote n="1">¹ Loi de transition énergétique pour la croissance verte is published on the site of Ministère de la Transition écologique et de la Cohésion des territoires, Accueil, Politiques publiques, Transition énergétique & bas carbone https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/loi-transition-energetique-croissance-verte</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_291.png" /><figcaption>[fig.1] Organic waste collected and transported on a cargo bike by Sikle - Les Composteurs de Strasbourg.
Source: photo by the author.</figcaption></figure>

In 2021, after an initial collaboration with the Eurometropole – currently underway – which plans to collect organic waste from 120 families living close to the Place de Saint Etienne, in the *hyper centre* – where there are no collection bins or microsites for composting neighbourhoods – Sikle proposed to the office of the Potagers Urbains Collectifs (which manages allotments in urban gardens) the creation of a gardening and social space in the Parc du Heyritz. The land was polluted with hydrocarbons and had been abandoned in the previous period. The proposal for the regeneration of the site included the creation of a micro-composting area to preserve the urban agricultural vocation of the site without cultivating the open land, as well as a project to create a thin forest on part of the site. The *jardins familiaux* (family gardens) department carried out important work to make the site viable: creating an access for lorries to deposit the shredded material, clearing the site, clearing the area, levelling the parts intended for composting, shredding and storing the shredded material.

The Jardin Soleil is one of two active micro-sites for delivery and composting [fig.2]. The other is at the Église Rouge in the north of the city. Sikle delivers both the organic waste collected from professionals in the city centre, which represents the material with a high nitrogen content, and the shredded branches and leaves from the maintenance of public green spaces, which represents the carbon part useful for the maturation of the compost. The citizens involved take part in the subsequent sifting operations and use the compost produced on site to cultivate vegetable gardens in greenhouses and in boxes. Relationships and economies are also created that link the composting site with family gardens in the immediate vicinity, which buy the fertiliser produced in the micro-site, thus activating a circular economy process by returning the waste produced by citizens to cultivated land in the city.
<figure><img src="image_292.png" /></figure>

[fig.2] Jardin Soleil, a shared space in the micro-site managed by Sikle - Les Composteurs de Strasbourg, Parc du Heyritz, Strasbourg. Source: photo by the author.

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# Visualising fluid territories: settling in and within shifts in the *chars* of Assam, India

*Swagata Das*

Affiliation: KU leuven

Supervisor: Bruno De Meulde, Kelly Shannon

Expected thesis defence: Sept 2024

Email: *Swagata.das@kuleuven.be*

The introduction of land-use planning has resulted in a categorical differentiation between land and water. This perspective of territories and categorical labelling disregards other cultural systems, ecologies, and economies that have adapted to indeterminant shifting landscapes. The paper explores the *chars* (river islands) of Assam to investigate how an alternative methodology of mapping can render the temporal *chars* more visible and legible, and help dismantle fixed land-use typologies in the process. The paper develops an alternative cartography, as a prerequisite to explore the fluid *chars* and illustrate different ways of settling and occupying shifts. Such multi-scaler and interpretative mapping reveal how inhabitants navigate the territory using the landscape's capacity and challenges. In a territory where fixing and controlling land and water has been proven to meet its limit, the uncontrollable realities of *chars* illuminate the need to acknowledge the nuance and gradations of the landscape.

## Introduction

Strict land-water distinctions have resulted from the introduction of cadastral maps and are the consequence of tax impositions on land. Land use planning has strengthened this distinction, that are articulated physically through embankments, dykes, etc. Continuously now, projects straighten these artificial edges and impose generic development models that fail to acknowledge the complex gradients of wetness that *characterize* wet-lands (land that is wet), which support unique cultural and ecological systems. By attempting to engineer land-water edges, “these boundaries do not simply separate water from land but create water and land on either side of it as entities that can be mapped and commodified and as such coveted, made scarce, and violated” (Cunha 2019, p. ix). In recent years, sea level rise has called the boundaries of the recent past into question (Wolff 2021). In addition, this perception of land and water alienates and rob the landscape of their histories by extracting them from their socio-cultural setting (Lahiri & Samanta, 2014, p.513). Hence, there is a need for a new drawing format to “uncover realities previously unseen or unimagined” (Corner 1999, p. 89) at the margins of land and water.

The paradoxical environment of *chars*, composed of mud and silt, possesses immense potential for livelihoods, even as it poses uncertainties to its communities. As such, *chars* represent a compelling reality that is productive and destructive simultaneously. Therefore, this study investigates the *chars* of Assam with an alternative methodology that renders the temporal *chars* more visible and legible, and helps dismantle fixed land-use typologies in the process. In turn, it illustrates how attunement to the temporal can lead to a move away from the “sterile dichotomy between indigenous and western, or traditional and scientific knowledge”(Agarwal 1995, p.31). The paradoxical environment of *chars*, productive yet destructive at the same time, offers a unique opportunity to understand how “resistant and resilient people seek refuge in response to the statist consolidation of borders” (Scott 2009, p. 22) and explore “alternative forms of urbanism to productively transform and socio-culturally appropriate nature and the landscape in order to effectively guide their use, occupation and urbanization” (Meulder and Shannon, 2010, p. 70).

The study begins by illustrating the fluid and dynamic nature of ‘charscapes’ (*char* landscapes). Secondly, an alternative cartography is developed, as a pre-requisite to understand the shifting *chars*. Lastly, three cases illustrate how people settle with and within these shifts, making use of the assets that come out of these various conditions, and reveal a mobile way of living with nature, rather than against it. This understanding of the constantly shifting human and landscape ecology pushes to develop new ways of thinking about urbanism and categorization.

## Fluid territories of *char*

As the river enters Brahmaputra Valley in Assam, the sudden flattening of slope and joining of tributaries carrying massive quantities of sediment result in an oscillating braided pattern creating
*chars.* They are extremely transient and can shift, submerge, disappear, and sometimes reappear over the years. *Chars* are neither land nor water but a uniquely fluid environment where the “demarcation between land and water cannot be well defined, or made permanent” (Lahiri-Dutt 2013, p1). Consequently, *chars* form a landscape in which no fixed or permanent boundaries on the ground establish limits. With one of the highest sediment yields in the world- 852.4 tons/km2/year (Lahiri and Sinha 2012), Brahmaputra River in Assam forms a network of braided channels interspersed with *chars*. [fig. 1] illustrates the braided nature of the river and hydromorphology which changes frequently due to natural causes like earthquakes, annual flooding and manmade causes like embankments and dams which try in vain to tame the river. *Char*, as a landform is born out of this dynamism.

<figure><img src="image_293.png" /></figure>

[fig. 1] Water movement. Overlaying river channels during major flood years illustrate the dynamic nature of water in the Brahmaputra Valley. Source: elaborated by author from satellite images in the month of December over the years (1984-2021) - Google Earth and GIS accessed on 3 Jan 2022 with images from fieldwork.
<figure><img src="image_294.png" /></figure>

[fig. 2] Movement of *chars*. The dotted lines represent temporal edges during major flood years and comparison with site images reveals how the edge of land and water is a gradient of wetness rather than a single edge/line. Source: elaborated by the author from Google Earth and GIS data accessed on 5 Jan 2022 with images collected during fieldwork.

## Between seen and unseen

The studied *char*, Birsing in the Lower Brahmaputra Valley[fig.3] is framed by Dhubri (the westernmost town of Assam) on the north, the porous India-Bangladesh international border on the West and the woodlands at the foothills of Khasi hills in the South. The region has the highest number of *chars* due to the flattening of the riverbed, widening of the river bed, and slowing down of the water's speed resulting in more silt deposition. Assamese Muslims make up the highest percentage of the *char* population here. The woodlands at the foothills of Khasi Hills in the South and watery borders with Bangladesh in the West serve as migration routes to reach the *chars*. The 2003-04 survey by Assam State *Char* Area Development Authority recorded around 12,000 inhabitants(in clusters of villages) living on the 951 hectares of Birsing *char* (Government of Assam 2004).

Until now, the *charuas* (people living in *chars*) have navigated the fluctuating territory by using the capacity and challenges of the landscape and occupying the margins of land and water, without being fully incorporated into the state system. The proximity to the international border and the Assam-Meghalaya state border makes Birsing a strategic location for the state. Engineering projects aimed at constraining and diverting water flows within embankments as well as a 19km bridge connecting the North and South banks are under construction[fig. 3]. With a major road (National Highway 127B) ending at each bank, the proposed bridge is crucial for the state to regulate trade across the river, which is mostly dependent on *charuas* and their boats in this part of the river. As the bridge spans large areas of *chars* where border conflicts occur between BSF (Border Security Force) and people crossing the India-Bangladesh border, the state agenda of control through infrastructure is apparent. The upper reaches of Brahmaputra underwent a similar process of infrastructure development(road and bridge construction across the Brahmaputra) and currently,
water routes are completely controlled by the state with no private boats allowed. Areas like Birsing
*Char* are on the radar with such development plans of the state making the territory, and with its
territory mastering the population within that territory through citizenship. When the state
intervenes in the management of territories like the *chars*, the omission/erasure in state maps
perpetuates violence with as much as nine percent of Assam's population who reside and move
between *chars*, being excluded from any state record.

<figure><img src="image_295.png" /></figure>

[fig. 3] Studied *char*. Birsing *char* is situated between the banks of Brahmaputra with close proximity to the Indo-Bangladesh international border and Assam-Meghalaya state border, holding a strategic location for the state for trade and security purposes. Source: Elaborated by author based on Google Earth imagery accessed on 5 Jan 2022.

The study focuses on the dynamic realm of *chars*, which have a historical context of migration for sustenance. In light of the dynamic and volatile nature of *chars*, conventional mapping tools are deemed inadequate for capturing their complexity. James Scott points out that “the cadastral map is very much like a still photograph of the current in a river”(Scott 2020, p.46) representing the condition at the moment the survey was conducted. In the absence of established cartography that adequately captures the volatility inherent in *chars*, it becomes necessary to construct a new framework that effectively incorporates the *characteristics* and practices unique to these regions. Consequently, conventional cartography must be set aside to develop a cartography that incorporates entities that have been left off maps. By employing colonial instruments such as hydrology, the study engages in reinterpreting these tools to facilitate a deeper understanding of *chars*. This serves as a foundation for understanding how the different locational assets created by the water conditions, are exploited by the people that settle within them.
<figure><img src="image_296.png" /><figcaption>Survey of India map</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_297.png" /><figcaption>Newspaper headlines</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_298.png" /></figure>

[fig. 4] Static maps and the violence they incite. Cadastral surveys and masterplan with colour-coded land use define fixed monofunctional uses. Territories like *chars* that do not fit into these maps are not represented and result in the omission of entire groups of the population who occupy temporal *chars*. Source: compiled by author from state maps from SOI(Survey of India), GMDA(Guwahati Municipal Development Authority) and news clippings.

## Cartographic exploration of fluid *charscapes*

In order to adequately account for the *charactersistics* of watery territories like *chars*, a novel cartographic approach is required. As such, new mapping represents an opportunity to investigate alternative means of depicting the fluidity and dynamism of *chars* by combining quantitative datasets and inherent knowledge of the site. Specifically, these visualizations aim to conceive of *charscapes* as a distinct terrain that cannot be straightforwardly classified as either land or water.

## Visualising *shifts*

Illustrating the dynamic nature of water in the Brahmaputra Valley, [fig. 5] highlight the shift of river channels over a longer period (between 1984 to 2022). Extracted hydrology data depict newer water channels in green, while dried/silted-up channels are highlighted in hues of red. The degree of change is indicated by the colour's intensity. For instance, darker red area lose more water (than
lighter red parts). These hydrologic data are combined with fieldwork in the section that documents shifting of the main river channel southwards post-1980s. The map clearly indicates more green extending towards the South bank depicting new occurrences as opposed to the drying up of channels near the North bank visible in red.

<figure><img src="image_299.png" /></figure>

[fig. 5] Channel displacement. Source: Elaborated by author based on data from global-surface-waterSpot.com, flooding data from ffs.india-water.gov.in and fieldwork interviews.
This shift was initiated by a series of earthquakes and floodings between 1980-1990s<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="2" /> brought up in several interviews on site. *Charuas* shifted their belongings along with cattle in their boats. Many set up temporary shelters in boats or dikes (higher grounds) waiting for the water to subside. Few shifted to the mainland where other family members reside. As the water subsided, many *charuas* returned to their lands. They initiated rebuilding their washed-away houses and eroded lands in another location on a higher ground deposited by the river. As one *charua* laments “River lifts, river also drowns” (fieldwork 2021), and this cycle continues. It is apparent that the concept of property ownership and land is quite different in the uncertain *chars*. The new land deposited is considered a gift from the river and *charuas* accept it as compensation for eroding their previous lands.

<figure><img src="image_300.png" /><figcaption>[fig.6] Settling in silt. Source: Elaborated by author based on satellite imageries from Google Earth accesses on 7 Mar 2022 and fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>

As silt is deposited, vegetation grows on the fertile silt and loose silt gets stabilized over years of deposition and gets transformed into soil. In various shades of brown, [fig 6] shows the various age of silts on Birsing *char* in the year 2022. The darker browns located in the center of the *char* indicate the most stable areas where relatively permanent houses and fields are located. A look at the

<footnote n="1">¹ Assam experienced significant earthquakes in the years 1980(magnitude 6.6), 1984(magnitude 6), 1985 (magnitude 6), 1988 (magnitude 7), 1989(magnitude 6.4) and 1990(magnitude 5.8).</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² The change in the river bed during earthquakes can be linked to significant flood events including the 1984, 1988 and 1990 Assam floods. The floods in 1988 were one of the most devastating flood events in Assam's history. Heavy monsoon rains and the overflowing Brahmaputra River led to extensive flooding across the state, causing significant loss of life, displacement of people, and damage to engineering infrastructure and agricultural land.</footnote>
fieldwork images on the right highlight the conditions of the most stable (darkest brown) areas in comparison to areas at the margins of land water. As *charuas* navigate the gradients of wetness, relatively permanent structures are constructed in stable parts and expanded into family homes with several family members over time while temporary single-unit huts, easy to dismantle, are erected in watery lands. This can be understood as a way of 'mobile' occupation of the territory, exploiting the various locational assets (that are fluctuating themselves) and hence generating a mobile form of living/dwelling.

## Visualising flows and gradients

*Chars* are seasonal landscapes with different levels of water and silt within a single year. The Seasonality Map [fig. 7] show both permanent and seasonal water and illustrates the intra-annual behaviour of water during the year 2021. The permanent water is represented in dark blue and areas of seasonal water are shown in lighter blue. The dark blues are areas where water remains even in the dry season. The lighter blues reflect the water that spills during the monsoon from June until August. The resulting shades of blue/degrees of wetness are exploited for crop varieties that adapt to different levels of water.

<figure><img src="image_301.png" /><figcaption>[fig.7] Seasonal waters. Source: Elaborated by author based on data from global-surface-waterspot.com for the year 2021, flooding data from ffs.india-water.gov.in and fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>

These shades of blue construct a gradient of landscape that reveals that the binary conception of land and water in *chars* is better understood as a continuum of varying degrees of wetness. Using dynamic mapping methods<fnref n="3" />, [fig 8] maps the territory as an always-evolving domain with continuously shifting grades of wetness/gradients of so(i)lidness. By using a transition from lines to dots, the maps visualize the flows of water and silt to convey the gradients and so(i)lidness that make up the *charscapes*. This seasonality further steers the cropping patterns and agricultural festivals embedded in the social lives of *charuas*. Local names(in blue) linked to their uses, better reveal the nuanced degrees of such landscapes. For instance, boka is a wet mud with sticky and soft texture to it and is ideal for planting rice saplings. Usually after flooding water recedes, water

<footnote n="3">³ inspired by the Traffic Study project of proposed traffic-movement pattern (Louis Kahn 1952).</footnote>
hyacinth grows on boka. It is malleable when wet and hardens when heated. So boka has various uses for charuas who utilize it to make utensils and coat mud floorings of their houses.

<figure><img src="image_302.png" /><figcaption>[fig.8] Gradients of water and silt. Source: Elaborated by author from Dynamicworld.app, satellite imageries from Google Earth, flooding data from floodmapping.inweh.unu.edu and fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>

## Settling in shifts and gradients

Occupation of the various gradients of wetness is dependent on the seasons. Seasonal changes occur even between the dry and monsoon seasons, which impact practices of occupations. The seasonal negotiations of making a productive landscape is a form of occupation. As the settlements, agricultural lands, and vegetation undergo transformations through the four seasons [fig. 9], notable is the use of boats and fishing nets that increase during the monsoons as opposed to settlements. As water recedes in the post-monsoon landscape, the fertile silt facilitates vegetation growth in the char. Settlements return during the dry season, and the silt resurfaces. The occupation of chars through different modes of occupations - growing crops, putting cattle to graze, erecting settlements, fishing etc. depends on how the landscape utilisation change depending on the silt, mud, water, and their gradations.
<figure><img src="image_303.png" /><figcaption>[fig.9] Seasonal *charscapes*. Source: Elaborated by author from Dynamicworld datasets, satellite imageries from Google Earth, flooding data from floodmapping.inweh.unu.edu and fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_304.png" /><figcaption>[fig.10] Three modes of occupation in a shifting territory. Source: Elaborated by author.</figcaption></figure>

With an understanding of the territory as an always-evolving domain, three narratives of occupying shifts are explored. The understanding of how people settle with and within these shifts by making use of the assets that arise out of the conditions of the landscape, reveals a mobile way of living and negotiating with nature.

### Narrative 1: Ghats - occupations at the edge of land and water

Ghats<fnref n="4" /> are important links between *chars* and the mainland. Birsing ghat serves as the entry to the *char* and provides a window to understanding how the constantly moving edge of land and water is being occupied. [Fig.11] illustrates the transformation of Birsing ghat by a series of satellite images that capture the fluctuation of water and silt. The 2019 monsoon and subsequent floods resulted in the deposition of a considerable amount of silt on the *char*'s edge, which retained water even after the floodwaters had receded. When the 2021 flooding occurred, the water rushed into the crevices, creating a new river channel was created. This water route was convenient for the locals, who could now reach the town(on North bank within ten-fifteen minutes boat journey and a nominal fee of 10 rupees. However, during the year 2021, water reached higher levels than the *ghat* and buried it under significant silt, necessitating the relocation of the *ghat* to the western edge of the *char*. This new location increased the commute time to the mainland by three to four times. These cycles of relocations continue as water and silt significantly influence how people and goods enter and leave the *char*.

In close proximity to the dirt roads leading from the *ghat* to the villages, one can observe cattle grazing. These grasslands not only serve as pastures for the animals but also as a source of fuel and housing materials for the local villagers. Additionally, there are several patches of crops that can be observed in the vicinity [fig.11]. These crops serve villagers as an additional source of sustenance during the lean season. The integration of these practices within the *ghat* highlights the sustainable land use practices in enhancing the resilience of communities in the face of changing environmental and economic conditions of the *chars*.

The *ghat* is also a critical hub for economic and social activities, and a range of shops, parking spaces, and other amenities come up. These spaces are an integral part of the village's social fabric, providing a space for villagers to socialize and exchange news and gossip while waiting for the next

<footnote n="4">⁴ Ghat is referred to the connection on an Indian riverbank that provides access to the water, for example a landing for ferries.</footnote>
boat. The vendors set up shops to earn a living from the shops, but they also contribute to the creation of a public space where social interactions can occur. Most village clusters are at a distance of 15-20 mins ride from the ghat. As such, many villagers park their own motorbikes and cycles next to the shops and entrust the vendors to keep an eye on the vehicles while they commute to the other side of the river. Additionally, a public shared car (known as trekkers by locals) system brings villagers to and from the ghat. It is interesting to note that the massive trekkers used for transportation, are assembled in Birsing from second-hand parts through the trading of motor parts across the India-Bangladesh border. The 4,000 km border is characterised by a range of formal and informal crossings, which serve as essential hubs for trade and commerce, facilitating the exchange of goods and services between the two countries. Motor parts are among the most traded goods across the border, with a range of components, including engines, tires, and other parts, being exchanged. The trade-in of motor parts is facilitated by a range of sociocultural practices that govern the movement of goods and people across the border. In her work 'Drawing in the Dark', artist Shilpa Gupta writes about how the daily life in borderlands belies state intentions of India building a 4000km fence encircling its neighbour Bangladesh. As "the flow of people and goods continues, prompted by historic and social affinities, geographical continuity, and economic imperatives"(Gupta 2021, p. 17), a vibrant subversive economy exists in the chars. The interplay between social, economic, and cultural practices is essential to understand the practices of settling and moving at the edge of land and water.

<figure><img src="image_305.png" /><figcaption>[fig.11] Birsing ghat. Source: Elaborated by author based on satellite imageries from Google earth accessed on 8may 2022, flooding data from ffs.india-water.gov.in and fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>
## Narrative 2: Pams - moving occupations for productive landscape

Pam, in Assamese language is land taken up at a distance from home usually for temporary cultivation. Locals of Birsing village erect pams and engage in agricultural activities on the surrounding land. Owing to the recurring cycles of sediment deposition and erosion in the area, settlers have been compelled to relocate periodically. During the post-monsoon year 2022, pams are observed adjacent to a receding channel[fig.13]. The rhythmic patterns of flooding have instigated a nomadic way of life among the charuas, who traverse the region seasonally in search of fertile lands suitable for settlement and cultivation[fig14]. As the fertility of the soil diminishes after two to three years of cropping, the charuas abandon such areas and venture towards alternative tracts. However, the annual inundation of the region remains a natural process that replenishes the soil with river-borne silt, thereby enticing the charuas to reclaim abandoned tracts after a few years. Notably, the year 2019 witnessed a significant flooding event, with the river reaching its highest flood level (HFL) at 30.37 meters. Consequently, a new channel was formed, elevating the adjacent terrain. This transformation prompted the establishment of new pams in the following years around the vicinity of the channel, where fertile deposits were concentrated.

The cycle of cultivation is attuned to seasonal cycles and levels of water. Most prominent, Sali rice is grown on manicured permanent fields fed by rainwater and nourished by the silt from floods. Newly emerged land is typically covered in tall grasses and Jhao bon(catkin grass) is burned and sown with abu (autumn rice) in March and April and harvested before the area is submerged under high water in July. The land is cultivated again after the floods recede. Post-monsoon, winter crops like rapeseed, mustard, or a variety of pulses are sowed, that are harvested in March. Since abu rice yields are low, crop regimes are adjusted in the lower part of the flood plain to avoid the fury of the flood and use the early rains for growing paddy and the moisture and fertility generated after the flood to grow a good crop of rapeseed and mustard. The edge of the river channel is inundated only when the floods are high. This land is used to grow a special variety of rice with long stems known locally as bao [fig.12], which grows despite flooding and survives due to its long stem. Bao rice is grown specifically in Baotalis, low-lying areas regularly under water for several weeks by monsoon and floodwaters.

<figure><img src="image_306.png" /><figcaption>[fig.12] Productive landscape. Adapting to the seasons and water levels, different cycles of crops are cultivated. Source: elaborated by author from fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_307.png" /><figcaption>[fig.13] Transformation of pam site and livelihood activities. Source: Elaborated by author based on satellite imageries from Google earth accessed on 8 may 2022 , flooding data from ffs.india-water.gov.in and fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_308.png" /><figcaption>[fig.14] Migration pattern of studied pам. Source: elaborated by author from fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>
Narrative 3: Bari - dwelling as territorial occupation

The concept of *bari*, commonly known as the home garden in Assam, is an agro-forestry practice whereby field cropping, livestock rearing, and the plantation of forest species are integrated harmoniously. This method has been deeply rooted in traditional homestead farming practices and has persisted since immemorial, providing supplemental sources that contribute to food and nutritional security and livelihoods. Within the dynamic landscape of the region, certain areas exhibit remarkable stability and are utilized for marketplaces, as well as the construction of essential public infrastructure such as hospitals and schools. These spaces also serve as shelters during periods of flooding. Furthermore, clusters of villages are placed on higher grounds in relatively stable locations. The most resilient sections of the *char* are predominantly inhabited by prosperous families who have resided in Birsing village for an extended duration and have made substantial investments to expand their residences. These families possess larger plots of land, boast a higher level of education among their members, and possess the means to relocate from their ancestral homes in the *chars* in search of white-collar employment opportunities. Nonetheless, the ties within the community remain strong, and Birsing continues to hold significance as their familial abode. For instance, consider the case of an individual within one of these families, an extensively educated engineer, who frequently transitions between his occupation in Dubai, his family residence in Dhubri town (located on the north bank), and his ancestral home in Birsing *char*.

<figure><img src="image_309.png" /><figcaption>[fig.15] Bari in interiors of Birsing *char*. Source: elaborated by author from fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_310.png" /><figcaption>[fig.16] Family home. Source: elaborated by author from fieldwork.</figcaption></figure>

Most *charuas* in this part of the village have migrated from Dacca, which is now in Bangladesh, across the Indo-Bangladesh border. The river and its various channels play a crucial role in facilitating the border crossing, as individuals hop from one *char* to another until they reach the main channel or a relatively stable *char* with community ties, where they can settle down. By examining the migration patterns of a specific family since their arrival in Birsing, it is evident that multiple generations have moved in and out of their ancestral home. After their ancestors migrated to India in the early 1900s, the family moved around but ultimately chose to settle in Birsing *char* due to community connections. To adapt to the annual flooding, those residing in Birsing *char* developed strategies such as relocating to raised platforms or staying in boats until the floodwaters receded. However, the severe flooding in 1980 displaced the family, and they sought refuge with friends on the mainland near Dhubri town before eventually returning to the *char*. Since the land had eroded significantly, they constructed a new house a few hundred meters away. Following the 1980 flood, the river changed its course, moving the main channel southward away from Birsing *char*. Subsequent flood events had lesser impact, and the family recognized the increased stability of the land, prompting them to expand their house to accommodate more family members. While newer generations built more permanent homes in nearby towns, the house in the *char* [fig.16] continues to serve as their ancestral home.

The occupation of newly emerged *chars* [fig. 17] demonstrate the organic system of claiming land in water. When a new *char* emerges with sandy deposits, *charuas* are cautious that it might not last out the season. However, loamy soil with sediments could serve a shorter cycle of rice or lentils during the monsoons. Newly emerged land during the dry season (winter months) is swiftly cultivated or cattles are left to graze on *kohuva bon* (catkin grass) that grows tall and makes the soil firmer and fertile. Interviews during fieldwork revealed that it is generally accepted that new *chars* formed in the continuity of one's land are considered as an increment to the land of the owner. Newly emerged *chars* belong to whoever occupied and cultivates it. Strategies for claiming range from growing crops to grasses to converting silt to the soil as well as releasing cattle to feed on the naturally growing reeds that stabilize the *chars*.

In numerous instances, a rental fee is remitted by the individual who pioneers the exploration of the newly emerged *char*, to the revenue department. This nominal payment facilitates the acquisition of an *eksonia patta*, which is an annual lease receipt. Remarkably, this nominal remittance persists even if the *char* land becomes submerged or succumbs to erosion in subsequent years because these
receipts play a crucial role as legal evidence during the periodic surveys conducted by the Revenue Department, which occur every 10-12 years. Consequently, the landowner is afforded the opportunity to select an alternative *char* in close proximity and convert their lease into a *miyadi patta*, thereby establishing permanent land ownership. These practices are adhered to even in the absence of visible land, thereby ensuring occupation despite the lack of physical territory. By tracing the migration patterns along shifting *chars*, the strategies of dwelling as a form of territorial occupation become apparent.

<figure><img src="image_311.png" /><figcaption>[fig.17] Migration pattern of one family in Birsing *char*. Source: elaborated by author from fieldwork interviews, December 2021.</figcaption></figure>

## Towards a nuanced understanding of fluid territories

In the face of the current environmental crises, this paper highlights the need to carefully consider fluid landscapes with shifting occupations. The paper aimed to develop alternative cartography that can render the temporal *chars* legible. This is a pre-requisite to understanding how the different locational assets created by the water conditions are being navigated. An exploration of the three cases of settling highlights how *charuas* navigate the *charscapes* by embracing the assets derived from environmental conditions. These cases illustrated a mobile way of living with nature, fostering a harmonious relationship between human communities and their natural surroundings. These visualisations serve as archetypes, highlighting the rationality inherent in the mobile way of living and navigating shifts within *chars*. The rationality of such an approach becomes evident in the context of inhabiting *chars*, where *charuas* demonstrate superior skills in engineering their landscapes compared to conventional engineers who primarily rely on embankments and dams in attempts to control and manipulate rivers. Thus *charscapes* possess potential lessons to illustrate other ways of settling, thus contributing to alternate forms of urbanism.
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# Dakar is leaking. Mapping changes on the territory of urban drainage services through time.

Evelien Van den Bruel

UCLouvain

Chiara Cavalieri

Expected thesis defense: January, 2026

Evelien.vandenbruel@uclouvain.be

Throughout time, Dakar's urban landscape has been shaped by ever-renewing infrastructures to meet its growing societal needs. Along with this transformation, stormwater and waste-water drainage services are put under pressure. As flooding events take over various parts of the city throughout the year, urban planning strategies urge to find a response to health and living issues. Hereby, attempts are made to address environmental challenges like drought and pollution. Though these changes are being pushed by institutionalized systems, numerous movements in which alternative actors participate have emerged. A historical tracing of hidden layers of the urbanized area reveals the significant role of citizens in drainage services. Yet, marks on the territory have faded over time. A better understanding of these transformations in the past could contribute to tackle current and future challenges. In the role play between citizens and the drainage system, the urban setting proves its undisclosed importance. The impact of the spatial characteristics (e.g., density, connectedness, and morphology) of these transformations is to be understood.

## Environmental challenges in the Sahel. Senegal is flooding

During the past 40 years, major floodings have been occurring in numerous African countries (Leclercq 2020; World Bank Group 2010). Specifically, West African areas in the semi-arid Sahelian<fnref n="1" /> region suffer more and more from changing environmental circumstances. Due to population growth and the strong urbanization trends, these flood-prone areas are increasingly at risk (Sy, Frischknecht 2020; Wade, Faye 2009; World Bank Group 2022). This problematic inextricably involves drought, pollution, and recharging shortages of aquifers. In Senegal, floods have affected up to 600.000 people annually between 1980 and 2008, seriously harming private property as well as urban infrastructure (World Bank Group 2010). Since, this calamity appears to have made a permanent home, wiping off the map entire neighborhoods (IFRC 2022). In 2009, more than 88 million euros in damage was noted, of which the biggest part affected peri-urban<fnref n="2" /> areas (USAID 2017). Ten years later, heavy rains forced almost 9.000 citizens to abandon their homes (World Bank Group 2022). In addition to the increase in scale, a growing frequency of flooding occurrences is notable over time (Leclercq 2020). The expected growth in Senegal's urbanization pattern – moved by climate migration and a substantial demographic growth of 2.5 percent per year – will continue to put pressure on the water demand and disposal (Wade, Faye 2009). The needs of people and nature are intertwined. Without careful planning that takes the water supply and drainage into account, the expansion of urban areas may make environmental issues problematic. The segmentation of actors makes it difficult to determine who is responsible for implementing preventive measures, leading to a lack of clarity in water governance.

## Two trends of transformation: towards alternative actions and integrative operations

Globally, institutional drainage systems prove little flexible solutions in response to the growing environmental challenges. Therefore, two trends of transformation can be identified in the management of urban water drainage (Dobre, Vinke-de Kruijf 2018; Grassini 2017; Mahaut 2009; Schaer 2015). As the technocratic (centralized) drainage systems generally show high maintenance costs, the first trend moves towards the implementation of alternative actions (e.g., the gradual renovation of infrastructures through revitalization projects). Hereby, more attention is drawn to the ecological circumstances and physical setting by the implementation of small-scale and site-specific actions (de Graaf and van der Brugge 2010; Dobre, Vinke-de Kruijf 2018). The second trend is characterized by the inclusion of citizens in integrative operations. During the years, academics started to acknowledge the importance of the citizen as active participant in service production (Brandsen, Steen 2018). Reinforced by literature recognition, opportunities of

<footnote n="1">1 The Sahel is a region of Africa bounded on the north by the Sahara Desert and on the south by savannas.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 The peri-urban is a mixed territory immediately adjacent to a city or urban area.</footnote>
interaction with local policies got conducted (Benjamin and Brudney 2018; Ostrom 1973). As a result, neighborhood resilience and safety prove to enhance. Jaglin (2004) describes the objectives of integrative operations – applied to water governance – as follows: to meet the demand of population effectively, to promote flexible social learning methods, and to guarantee long-term commitment of population in management. However, it is still unclear how these trends affect the long-term viability of urban drainage systems (de Graaf and van der Brugge 2010; Faldi, Rosati 2021; Schaer 2015).

*Integrative operations in Senegal: key actors and the decentralization process*

Since its independence in 1960, Senegal knows an institutionalized water management separating water in three different flows – drinking water, waste-water<fnref n="3" />, and stormwater (Galletta, Mouhoub 2021). From 1983, the state-run Société Nationale d'Exploitation des Eaux du Sénégal (SONEES) was responsible for both the distribution of drinking water and the implementation of waste-water networks (Ba 2006). Local authorities were however responsible for management and maintenance. In 1995, a policy reform marks an important turning point (Galletta, Mouhoub 2021). In response to the dysfunctionality of the water sector, the World Bank invested in stormwater drainage infrastructure. It aimed to break the public sector's monopoly by bringing water in the category of market goods (Banque Africaine de Développement 2012). To this end, SONEES was divided into three structures: a public establishment responsible for managing the national water resources (Société Nationale des Eaux du Sénégal or SONES), a private company producing and distributing drinking water (Sénégalaise des Eaux or SDE – now Sen'Eau), and a public establishment in charge of collecting and treating waste-water (Office National de l'Assainissement du Sénégal or ONAS) (Galletta, Mouhoub 2021; Guéyé 2012; Leclercq 2020). However, the restructuring to privatization is questioned as it leads to a model in which profit is prioritized (Ba 2006). Peri-urban and rural zones require more infrastructure costs than urban poles, where billing and collection of water rates are more effective. Thus, urban areas gain the most from the investments. Accordingly, while ONAS oversees primary and secondary waste-water networks, peri-urban areas are left out. Here, actors at municipality level are in charge – despite having few resources (Schaer, Thiam 2017). Regarding stormwater management, the Commission Nationale de Gestion Prévisionnelle des Inondations was established in 2001, integrating all agencies involved in flood management (Lo 2013). Its goal is to facilitate stormwater drainage out of the city. These concerns are mainly addressed through urban restructuration projects (Bottazzi, Winkler 2019). Agence de Développement Municipal (ADM) is responsible for creating a master plan in flood-prone areas (Schaer, Thiam 2017). Founded in 1997, its aim is to curb corruption and centralize the management of large-scale drainage projects. Recently, the Direction de la Prevention et Gestion des Inondations (DPGI) was established to create a political environment that brings together all departmental actors involved in flood management (Bottazzi, Winkler 2019). Yet, peri-urban neighborhoods are largely excluded. The lack of resources of local municipalities forces other actors – such as citizens and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – to operate (Schaer and Hanonou 2017). As a result, Senegal is marked by an entangled dynamic between local and institutional water managers. Accordingly, community management slowly became a standard approach (Galletta, Mouhoub 2021). The trend towards integrative operations is therefore further elaborated in the scope of the text. Senegal embarked on a decentralization process<fnref n="4" /> with benchmark acts in 1972, 1996, and 2013 (Faye 2008). In doing so, the regionalization of urban planning was encouraged (World Bank Group 2018). Following programs indicate how this decentralization process got translated in water management policies over time: for decades, the Plan Directeur d'Assainissement (PDA) promoted participation of citizens in planning and management of waste-water systems (Leclercq 2020). Issued from 2002 to 2006, the Programme d'assainissement des quartiers péri-urbain de Dakar (PAQPUD) aimed to put in operation a co-management model between ONAS, municipalities, and civic organizations (Norman, Scott

<footnote n="3">³ Research on water comes with a specific jargon. In literature, wastewater is considered both a polluted waterflow and a flow in which water is used as a means of transport for waste. In the latter case, water is rather considered a 'flushing agent'. The use of language varies, allowing friction between different interpretations. A reflection about the meaning of wastewater brings forward its problematic artificiality. To question its impact, the non-natural identity of the word is stressed in this text through its notation – as waste-water.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ A controversy arises between the introduction of a centralized infrastructure and the decentralization process. This will not be elaborated further in this text since the focus lies on participatory management that is in line with this decentralization.</footnote>
2011). Most recently, the *Projet de Gestion des Eaux Pluviales et d'Adaptation au Changement Climatique (PROGEP)* tried to reduce flooding risk in peri-urban areas, focusing on a drainage system per watershed<fnref n="5" /> (ADM 2013). Hereby, it put in place a local committee to coordinate the PROGEP and maintain realized infrastructures. Citizen initiatives (e.g., collective savings for drainage pipes and local maintenance actions) are thus deployed progressively for the creation and maintenance of secondary and tertiary drainage systems (Bottazzi, Winkler 2019; Galletta, Mouhoub 2021; Pezon 2018). Despite the launch of the decentralization process, its competence is not fully implemented in the drainage and sanitation sector. The institutional nature of the framework does not allow a fully operational principle of participation at the local level. Citizens still express dissatisfaction in the quality of services (i.e., pollution and drainage systems congestion resulting in water stagnation) (Galletta, Mouhoub 2021).

## Unraveling the urban décor. Towards a balanced urban ‘water machine’

A better understanding of integrative water management throughout the transformation to resilient urban areas is being developed (Dotti 2016). Considering that cities continue to expand while crossing nature's boundaries, the interrelation between citizens and the territory is a crucial subject of study. The spatial context in which drainage services are embedded plays a significant role in this participative service production (Ranzato and Moretto 2018). Yet, it is still unknown how. This study aims to advance knowledge on the setting of the changing ‘water machine’<fnref n="6" />. An analysis with respect to the theoretical transition framework is done to more accurately detect and examine changes over time.

### Transition theory. The spatial dimension of change in integrative water drainage management

The idea of ‘moving toward sustainability’ is connected to transition in literature on societal development (Geels 2011; Köhler, Geels 2019). According to Markard et al. (2012, pp.956), this sustainability transition is generally defined as “a long-term, multi-dimensional, and fundamental transformation process through which established socio-technical systems shift to more sustainable modes of production and consumption”. Various studies discuss and recognize the link between flooding problems and urbanization (Leclercq 2020; Nguirane 2016; Wade, Faye 2009). The metropolitan area of Dakar is by far the largest urbanized area in Senegal and thereby the biggest victim of floodings (Galletta, Mouhoub 2021). A projection of this framework on Dakar's drainage system and its changes over time can provide insights into its sustainability. One of the approaches of sustainability transition is the multi-phase concept (Loorbach and Rotmans 2006). The transition is hereby divided into four phases – namely predevelopment, take-off, acceleration, and stabilization. This division helps to observe the changing system and allows to identify useful patterns that lead to success or breakdown. However, to comprehend changes in the production of an urban drainage system, an understanding of how they relate to their territorial context is essential (Geels and Schot 2007; Köhler, Geels 2019). Academic research on the geography of sustainability transitions is lacking (Coenen, Benneworth 2012; Markard, Raven 2012). It is thus still challenging to gain understanding of the spatial context and scale of practices going through a sustainability transition (Gimenez-Maranges, Breuste 2020). This work is therefore approaching the changes in Dakar’s urban area from a spatial perspective, supported by the claim that more work needs to be done to integrate the socio-ecological and geographic dimensions of change (Raven, Schot 2012). As research on societal transitions lacks a general understanding of the role of scale and geography, a study across space and time is required (Köhler, Geels 2019). Here, the spatial characteristics from the co-production framework like settlement type, housing density, morphology, and connectedness are used as guide (Faldi, Ranzato 2022; Faldi, Rosati 2019). Consequently, the research interest is the selection of place-specific examples in which the spatial characteristics of these transformations are detectable. This work thus aims to develop an understanding of how and at what scale the spatial configurations of the urban area (i.e., change in building morphology, density, network, access to service, etc.) influence the waste-water and stormwater services and

<footnote n="5">5 A watershed is an area of land that drains into one body of water – such as a river or lake.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">6 The ‘water machine’ refers to the intertwined network of artificial and natural water flows.</footnote>
conversely. In addition, it also looks for the internal changes of the drainage service (i.e., the device and technology).

## Methodology: the historical tracing

The first signs of flooding in Dakar only date back about 30 years (Wade, Faye 2009). Yet, the aim is to understand this issue looking at its long-term history – inextricably intertwined with the urbanization process. The link between the urban environment and flooding can be perceived in space and time. Nevertheless, it is still unclear what scale and which spatial configurations to look at to get a comprehension of change according to the transition framework. Therefore, ‘layers’ of spatial information on the scale of the urbanized area of Dakar are collected and superposed. This accumulation or ‘palimpsest’ consists of layers from different source types. An introductory map serves as base layer and shows the most recent areas that are prone to flooding. An excavation of historical layers of the urban fabric aims to give the outline of the history of Dakar’s urbanization and most impactful infrastructural changes. Adding this to a collection of geographical and hydrological layers and the base layer allows to put in relation the floodable areas, the natural drainage system, and urban infrastructure. Then, problematic zones are highlighted and categorized according to three main causes. The spatial superposition is done through literature review, supplemented with (historical) maps and information gathered from fieldwork experiences (i.e., photo series, and drawings during urban walks). Subsequently, key actors are identified for the areas that experienced flooding. For two of the causes of urban flooding, an example is briefly discussed in which citizens play an active role. Hereby, the scale and spatial configuration are defined. One of these cases is further elaborated, identifying the change in the spatial characteristics of the built environment and the drainage system through map analysis.

## Dakar as forerunner in a ‘water-shy’ story

Since the end of the 1980s, the popular neighborhoods of Dakar have been affected by floods (Wade, Faye 2009). A combination of human and natural factors is to blame. It is notable that earlier floods are mainly situated in the west of the peri-urban area while recent floods occur in the east. A significant mobilization of civic organizations has intervened to provide solutions (Diop 2010; Streule, Karaman 2020). Although the delineation of the study area is further explained, a clarification can be made and visualized when explaining the stated boundaries of Dakar [fig.1]. With respect to the discussed flooding problems, the peri-urban area of Dakar is mainly at stake. Four out of the five departments are covered by this area, namely Guédiawayé, Pikine, Keur Massar, and Rufisque – referred to as the peri-urban. The department of Dakar falls outside the discussed area because of its high elevation and extensive drainage system.

### *A historical tracing of Dakar's natural water system*

Regarding the floods, a description of Dakar's natural geographic and hydrologic system is elaborated, based on map analysis and the works of Faye et al. (2019), Laaroubi (2017) and Nguirane (2016) [fig.1]. The urbanized area has continued to spread regardless of its geologically diverse surroundings. The topography of the Cap Vert is the result of several million-year-old volcanic activity. The western point lies 20 meters above sea level. Because this plateau consists mainly of a thick layer of volcanic deposits, little flooding problems are experienced. The remaining part of the peninsula which connects the Cap Vert's plateau to the continent can geographically and hydrologically be divided into a northern and southern watershed. A freshwater aquifer – known as Thiaroye<fnref n="7" /> – maintains humidity in the middle of this area's depressions – called Niayes – for most of the year. The drainage of the Niayes reaches from the inland towards the northern and southern estuaries into the sea. The northern part – mainly covering the department of Guédiawayé and Keur Massar – is characterized by a series of dunes along the coast. These dunes prevent drainage of inland water towards the sea. This ‘congestion’ in the low-lying inland areas forms a succession of lakes that stretch along the coast like a pearl string. This series of lakes is naturally interconnected and extends into the north of the continent up to almost 100 kilometers outside of Dakar. The southern part mainly corresponds to the administrative limits of the department of

<footnote n="7">7 The Thiaroye lies underneath the Niayes, largely covering the departments of Guédiawayé, Pikine, and Keur Massar.</footnote>
Pikine. It knows a different type of drainage from the inland. Here, the Niayes are connected to the sea with several river branches. Finally, the urbanized area of Rufisque is situated in the south-eastern part of Dakar and characterized by a half-open depression or *demi-cuvette*. It lies exactly on the fault line between the plateau of Dakar and the inland plateau of Ndiass.

### *A historical tracing of Dakar's urban infrastructure*

The delicate water system in this diverse peri-urban territory is manipulated through time. An overview of changes in the urban tissue is subsequently described and visualized [fig.1]. Starting from the 15th century, the urbanization of the Cap Vert concentrated mainly around the poles of Dakar and Rufisque. Due to a long drought period in Sahel during the seventies, rural inland population migrated in the seventies to the urban coastal areas (Laaroubi 2017). Situated at the extreme point of the Cap Vert, Dakar has since only known an eastward expansion. The entire peninsula gradually urbanized to such an extent that the city of Rufisque has now been 'swallowed' by the capital (Doyle 2019). The limited resources of this migrant population resulted in the emergence of self-constructed spontaneous neighborhoods, established in lowlands (Schaer, Thiam 2017). Water supply and sanitation services were non-existent (Nguirane 2016). Until the 1980s, the drinking water was largely supplied by pumping the Thiaroye aquifer (Bottazzi, Winkler 2019). The infiltrating nitrates from septic tanks that came with the settlements polluted this underlying aquifer. This induced the stop of exploitation. Drinking water was henceforth obtained from a lake 250 km outside the city, leading to two impactful consequences. Firstly, the pumping stop caused pressure on the Thiaroye aquifer. Secondly, used household water was added to this through infiltration, causing the groundwater table to rise (Ministère de l'Énergie et de l'Hydraulique 2004). Another change at the scale of the peninsula is the series of infrastructural interventions for transportation. Over time, new transport networks have been introduced into the urban landscape of Dakar. A highway was constructed from 2005 until 2013 to promote rural and urban development (Diop and Mbeguere 2006; Graftieaux 2017). This road connects the Cap Vert with Rufisque to continue to the international airport. A few years later, in 2019, a railway was inaugurated. This line also crosses the entire peninsula from Dakar city to the east outside the region and parallels – just like a part of the highway – the southern coastline. Furthermore, the downside of some infrastructural projects against flooding cannot be denied. Powered by the PROGEP, retention basins have been constructed in Pikine and Guédiawayé, which buffered stormwater in the city during heavy rainfall. Entire neighborhoods were evacuated to give place to these basins. The concerned citizens got assigned a new location a few kilometers eastwards (Ministère de l'Habitat, de la Construction et de l'Hydraulique 2010). Although these new neighborhoods were built with a sanitation and drainage network, new construction zones 'branched' to them for which no drainage system was provided. Now, the unfortunate outcome of these new poles is already visible. The new built-up areas have been the most recent affected by flooding (Schaer, Thiam 2017). On top of that, the lack of maintenance by ONAS and the users of the various urban infrastructures is a reinforcing factor for the natural drainage obstruction. Although organizations at different levels (e.g., ONAS, NGOs, and citizens) are cleaning of canals, basins, and pipes, the drainage network is heavily polluted. In addition to waste, the large number of water plants and sand clogs the drainage system (Leclercq, Diongue 2023).
<figure><img src="image_312.png" /><figcaption>[fig.1] Superposition of flood prone areas, urban infrastructure and natural water system in the Cap Vert and peri-urban Dakar. Source: elaborated by author from IRD, ORTOM, OSM, and TWB.</figcaption></figure>

## Three momenta of change in the peri-urban territory

A superposition of the discussed maps on floodable areas, the natural drainage system, and the urban infrastructure [fig.1] in Dakar reveals different zones of conflict [fig.2]. They can be categorized according to three explanatory flooding causes. The first cause is the widespread use of natural water flows as means of transportation for waste. Liquid waste is dispersed into natural waterflows through clandestine pipelines or open canals, made by citizens themselves. This phenomenon – or ‘rinsing’ strategy – can be found in other departments of the peri-urban area. This movement is initiated to prevent disease spread. Yet, solid waste disposal causes the congestion of these canals whereby water stagnation occurs. Although this waste-water drainage method offers a short-term solution for the citizens, the environmental sustainability is still at stake. The second cause implies the dwelling densification. This eventually results in a greater amount of water to be consumed and drained. This becomes even more significant when the respected area is a crucial element of the natural water system (e.g., a wetland, floodplain, riverbank, or some type of water buffering zone). Superposing the hydrological network, the densifying urban fabric, the flooded zones, the citizen initiatives, and the extent of the Thiaroye aquifer, the northern watershed appears critical. Several neighborhoods of Guédiawayé are built on former wetlands. The growing land demand in this area provoked soil hardening. The reduced possibilities of surface water infiltration cause an increase in runoff water and need for drainage systems. The water table rises due to the returning rain, reduced infiltration possibilities and water for drinking and household
activities. In 2016, *Vers un Mouvement Citoyen des Quartiers Précaires de la Banlieue de Dakar* was set up.
This program included the three municipalities of Médina Gounass, Djidah Thiaroye Kao, and
Wakinane Nimzath. The neighborhoods in the intervention area are essentially informal<fnref n="8" />. Most of
them are affected by regular or permanent floods and suffer from a lack of urban planning,
insufficient solid waste management, insufficient infrastructure for rainwater drainage, or
problematic governance. Due to a lack of structure and resources, institutionalized actions are
poorly coordinated. The involvement of the populations appears to be a credible solution to enable
the fundraising for and creation of tertiary networks and the management of existing networks at
street and neighborhood level. The proposed model of coordination and financing of projects
allows the realization of micro-projects at different scales: individual, semi-collective and collective.
These scales are precisely those that are not attainable by state projects. The third cause is the
punctual or linear disruption of the natural drainage system (e.g., a river, creek, or underground
stream). This phenomenon occurs where natural rivers or streams are put underground, diverted,
or disrupted (e.g., 'cut through' by a road or railway). The superposition of the mobility
infrastructure, soil types, urban fabric, flooded zones, and topography highlights the disruption of
the natural drainage by transport infrastructure. The *demi-cuvette* of Rufisque's urban area covers a
succession of north-south oriented watersheds. The central and most low-lying watersheds are
marked by dense urbanization. The sprawl of housing lead to the modification and disappearance
of several watercourses, redefining the limits of these watersheds. The sanitation of the city of
Rufisque is characterized by an open-air canalization – dating from the colonial period. This
network follows the natural logic of gravity and water drainage and is still in use, despite little
maintenance. The railway and autoroute are recent infrastructural interventions that complicate
Rufisque's drainage system. These infrastructures are constructed perpendicular to the gravitational
drainage network. At the intersections, pipes are installed but the bottlenecks still largely hinder the
natural run-off. Additionally, the stormwater that ends up on the highway flows towards the lowest
areas, flooding entire neighborhoods. Since ADM does not yet have a program a centralized
drainage system and ONAS is limited to the primary waste-water networks, citizens are forced to
act. Through a collection of money, they are organized on neighborhood level to buy pumps and
build a secondary and tertiary drainage network for stormwater and domestic water. In some cases,
the overflow of the septic tank is connected.

<figure><img src="image_313.png" /><figcaption>[fig.2] Peri-urban flooding palimpsest and critical zones. Source: elaborated by author, from OSM and TWB.</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="8">⁸ Informal areas contain spontaneous settlements with little cadastral organization or access to public services.</footnote>
Exploration of the spatial dimension of waste-water and stormwater services in Rufisque

The strata of the territory of Rufisque are further examined to identify spatial changes. The focus
hereby lies on changes in the territory and changes in the drainage system itself. The identification
of originally wet zones through old maps is challenging. Yet, a superposition of topography, the
urban fabric, the water network, soil types, and observations from urban walks reveals that the
paved flanks of the *demi-cuvette* and run-off water from the highway have problematically moistened
several habited parts. Looking closer to the zone affected by flooding, the area covered by the
commune of Rufisque Nord is particularly affected, revealing the consequences of the new road
and railway infrastructure [fig.3]. Cut through in the north by the highway and in the south by the
railway, several neighborhoods are under pressure. Atop the watershed, a large water basin collects
the runoff water from the highway. Before the rainfall, water is regularly pumped away through a
large pipe that meanders between the houses to the sea. It follows the bed of the natural
stormwater drainage. Along this bed, the rise of groundwater and the degradation of housing is
clearly visible [fig.4]. The built environment can be described as irregular and dense. The buildings
have an average of two to three stories. They mainly dispose waste-water individually through
septic tanks. Although the old canals are still managed by ONAS, the network does not reach most
dwellings of Rufisque Nord. Due to the increasing floods, citizens are organized among themselves
to create a stormwater system. The structure of their community serves as a backbone to this. The
municipality of Rufisque Nord is divided into several districts, each of them guided by a delegee.
This delegee is elected by the citizens and maintains an overview of the most affected zones. In
district Darou Rakhmane, a sub-level – the sector – emerges. This community-level is formed to
produce a secondary drainage system. The sector here contains of around 100 houses and consist
of about seven streets. This is determined by a delegee in cooperation with local associations to
allow smooth operation and payment. The sector has the size of one project application and
execution. The access and price to the service depends on the size of the project. Little changes are
observed in land use, tenure, and technology of the drainage system. Only the zones that are too
wet are abandoned after years. Although the natural drainage network is part of the Thiokho
watershed, human manipulations over time have pushed these limits, complicating with this the
definition and determination of the scale.

<figure><img src="image_314.png" /><figcaption>[fig.3] Scale of citizen intervention in Rufisque Nord. Source: elaborated by author from OSM and Laaroubi (2007).</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_315.png" /><figcaption>Water basin collecting runoff water from highway.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_316.png" /><figcaption>Waterproof walls in front of dwelling.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_317.png" /><figcaption>Stormwater pipe draining water from basin to canal towards sea.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_318.png" /><figcaption>Self-dug drainage system and connection to dwelling.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_319.png" /><figcaption>Stormwater pipe draining water from
basin to canal towards sea.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_320.png" /><figcaption>Permanently flooded wasteland.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_321.png" /><figcaption>Street with underground drainage installed by residents of one sector.</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_322.png" /><figcaption>Vacant dwelling, affected by the raising
aquifer.</figcaption></figure>

[fig.4] Observations of drainage network in Darou Rakhmane. Source: elaborated by author.

Conclusion

In Dakar, flooding issues have been pushing planning strategies towards a facilitation of urban water drainage. Over the last two decades, floods have become entrenched in water governance, encouraging management and prevention into major construction works. Together with the housing and transport infrastructures, these spatial interventions have caused an – already delicate – natural drainage system to be seriously disrupted. The main strategies applied in urban planning consider (underground) stormwater drainage systems as the nearest solution. Policies appear to be leading every drop as fast as possible towards the sea. In this way, the relationship between the landscape, the water, and urban development is characterized as one-sided and ‘water-shy’. This can be metaphorically described as an outflow or ‘leakage’ of water – an elsewhere precious commodity – from the city. Although it offers a solution for the citizens, the environmental sustainability of this vision should be elaborated further. The ‘too much’ or ‘too little’ water in a certain place at a certain time have encouraged the hygienic ‘rinsing’ strategies. The example of Rufisque demonstrates that the spatial changes over time have mainly been caused by major infrastructural interventions. Institutional water drainage systems have major shortcomings, which pushes citizens into distress. As a result, an appropriate scale is being sought for local communities to set up their own drainage system. This scale is important to further explore the sustainability transition. Although government agencies work according to a strategy of gravity and natural drainage, the built environment proves to already have influenced the natural drainage system to such an extent that this is difficult to achieve. Meanwhile, citizens' initiatives have come into effect. Tracing the water flows, the peri-urban territory appears to be in a stormwater and waste-water acceleration strategy. The impact of the loss of water on the natural environment is put behind.

Note

This work is part of an overarching research project, funded by FNRS – called WaSCoT. The research studies change in waste-water and stormwater co-production through time and is conducted by Université catholique de Louvain in collaboration with Université Libre de Bruxelles.
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# Hopeful environmental stories. Limits and contradictions of ecological restoration pilot-projects in the Venice Lagoon

Amina Chouairi

Università Iuav di Venezia - Scuola di Dottorato, Urbanism curriculum

Supervisor: Maria Chiara Tosi, Università Iuav di Venezia; Co-supervisor: Inge Bobbink, Delft University of Technology

Expected thesis defence: April 2025

achouairi@iuav.it

Wetlands restoration projects are gaining more and more consideration and visibility given the acknowledged relevance of wet ecosystems. However, such projects often embed critical limitations, too often left unspoken, which eventually could inform and support future urbanism and landscape designs and interventions. Features as geographical proximity, ecological complementarity, partners' interchange, administrative continuity, pilot ideas, and socio-ecological justice will be discussed in regard to European Union funded pilot-projects in the Venice Lagoon, supported by the Life Program between 1999 and 2022. Through the analysis of recently completed wetlands restoration projects, the present investigation discusses their limits and contradictions by understanding the relations they establish with each other.

## Introduction

Wetlands are places of paradoxes (Proulx 2022). Despite their unmatched ecological relevance, a grounded contradiction stands firmly between their vital role and contemporary neglect status (Ramsar Convention on Wetlands 1971). During the last few decades, ecological restoration projects received revived attention and grand promotion to counteract wetlands' erosive trends - as witnessed by the inauguration of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 titled "Rebuilding with Nature". This re-consideration has also interested the Venice Lagoon, the largest in the Mediterranean basin, where a renewed concern and sensibility towards its brackish marshes (*barene* in Venetian dialect, meaning "bush" or "clump of grass") has advocated for urgent actions. The precarious status of wetlands, the recognised relevance of ecological restoration projects and the challenging essence of transitional territories, all reified in the Venice Lagoon, might inform, prompt, and expand strategies on how to "design in the terrain of water" (Mathur, Da Cunha 2014).

Historically, in the Venice Lagoon, the methodological approach to design has been structured in terms of emergency policies and laws —such as the Legge Speciale per Venezia (Special Law for Venice), April 16th 1973, n. 171— or major engineering interventions, also known as “Grandi Opere”, under the aegis of a “philosophy of engineering” (Vianello 2021).<fnref n="1" /> Despite this local consolidated yet outmoded tradition, on a pan-European level, the contemporary practice of design-in-a-landscape has been shifting towards integrated, symbiotic, and fluid experiments, open to embrace the life, changes and movements of complex ecosystems and ecotones. The last fifty years saw the crucial emergence of processual-oriented design approaches such as Design with Nature (McHarg 1969; Steiner et al. 2019) and Building with Nature (van Eekelen, Bouw 2020) making Urbanism and Landscape follow Ecology "toward a more organic model of open-endedness, flexibility, resilience and adaptation, and away from a mechanistic model of stability and control" (Milligan 2015).

As Donna Haraway argues in Staying with the Trouble, “the task is to make kin in lines of inventive connection as a practice of learning to live and die well with each other in a thick present: our task is to make trouble, to stir up potent response to devastating events, as well as to settle troubled waters and rebuild quiet places” to foster “unexpected collaborations and combinations” (Haraway 2016). The present contribution draws on recently completed design exercises in the Venice Lagoon to both decode their critical limitations and understand their innovative support, reading them as some kind of “hopeful environmental stories” (Martin 2022). Such an acknowledgement is

<footnote n="1">¹ According to ARPA (Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale, *Regional Agency for Environmental Protection*), “Grandi Opere” include “infrastructural interventions” characterised by a high degree of planning, executive or implementation complexity and complex technical-administrative procedures (ARPA 1999). In the Venice Lagoon, Mo.S.E. (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, *Experimental Electromechanical Module*), Piano di interventi per la ricostruzione delle strutture morfologiche mediante l'utilizzo di sedimenti provenienti dal dragaggio di canali lagunari (*Action plan for the reconstruction of morphological structures through the employment of dredged sediments*) and Piano Europa: Piano delle misure di compensazione, conservazione e riqualificazione ambientale* (Europe Plan: Plan for environmental compensation, conservation and rehabilitation measures) can be described as “Grandi Opere”.</footnote>
required to inform and lay the foundations for integrative designs with water in transitional territories.

<figure><img src="image_323.png" /></figure>

[Fig. 1] The European Union Life and Horizon funded projects and the morphological structures planned by Consorzio Venezia Nuova in relation to the erosion and deposition patterns in the Venice Lagoon between 1970 and 2000.

## Lifelines

During the past twenty-five years, in the Venice Lagoon, the European Union has funded six projects focusing on the ecological restoration of lagoon habitats (inter-tidal, sub-tidal, emerged, and submerged), four under the EU Life program and two under the Horizon 2020 program (Green Deal Call and Innovation Action). The present contribution focuses on the four EU Life program-funded projects reading them as a “cluster study” rather than as “case studies”. To support this reading, the focus lies on the fluid and rhizomatic relations the projects have established rather than on their peculiarities as static and segregated objects. The projects - Life Barene (1999-2002), Life Vimine (2013-2017), Life Seresto (2014-2018) and Life Lagoon Refresh (2017-2022) - are concentrated in space (they are all located in the Northern Venice Lagoon) and time (they have been financed within the last two decades), have comparable extensions and durations and perform similar design principles. Although Life Barene inaugurated the florid season of European Union support in 1999, Life Vimine is selected as the entry point to decode the ignited relations among the others. The exercise consists of knotting and drawing lines while understanding and exploring multiple relational levels to grasp connections and ruptures (Ingold 2015). The ongoing analysis has identified six key aspects worth investigating.

Geographical proximity. As [fig. 1] reports, the four EU Life interventions have been implemented in the Northern Venice Lagoon due to its relatively good status of morphological conservation.<fnref n="2" /> In turn, the action sites have been located in internal areas of the lagoon – where tidal currents expand more slowly, and boat traffic is relatively low. These propitious conditions have allowed the EU Life experimental interventions to rely on discrete pre-existing environmental characteristics and, therefore, to put in practice a higher degree of experimentality. Undoubtedly, worse and more damaged pre-existing conditions would have required more resistant interventions and, potentially, would have mined the results of the pilot experiments.

Ecological complementarity. As Tagliapietra states, “Human activity during the twentieth century has endangered two of the key habitats of the Lagoon of Venice, the salt marshes and the seagrass beds, for which environmental conservation and restoration programs have been put in place” (Tagliapietra et al. 2018). Even if Life projects have been developed autonomously and in different periods, they all have encompassed a planned ecological continuity and complementarity: Life Barene and Life Vimine worked with the intertidal habitat of brackish marshes, Life Seresto worked

<footnote n="2">² Between 1970 and 2000, the Northern Venice Lagoon has witnessed a trend of sediment deposition in contrast with the erosive general trend occurred in the Southern Venice Lagoon (Molinaroli et al., 2009).</footnote>
with the subtidal habitat of seagrass (phanerogams prairies), and Life Refresh worked with the emerged habitat of reedbeds.

Partners' interchange. As [fig. 2] presents, the projects considered report a high degree of national and international involvement. Provveditorato Interregionale per le Opere Pubbliche per il Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige e Friuli Venezia Giulia took part in all four Life projects while Comune di Venezia supported activities in Life Barene and Life Vimine.<fnref n="3" /> However, after the conclusion of Life Barene in 2002, no public administrative body has coordinated any project ever since. Life Vimine, Life Seresto and Life Refresh were led by universities and research organizations, respectively Università di Padova, Università Ca' Foscari and ISPRA.<fnref n="4" /> On the one hand, such a repetition of partners granted stability to the projects taken over. The established knowledge on the subject matters was implemented and carried further by those same researchers who initiated it. On the other hand, such an introvert closure has limited the potential involvement of external and innovative figures.

Administrative continuity. "However, to be successful, these pilot projects that pursue the EU's goal of halting biodiversity loss need to seek forms of medium- or long-term sustainability with the involvement of local authorities and stakeholders." (Tagliapietra et al. 2018). Following this crucial understanding of long-term engagement with local institutions, after its completion in 2017, Life Vimine coordinators and researchers have been working further to integrate the projects' interventions in the ordinary management of the Venice Lagoon public works.<fnref n="5" /> By drawing a sound administrative route, the Vimine AFTER LIFE attempts to overcome the inherent limitations of European Life projects – the limited economic resources and schedules – to impact the very present time of the lagoon's ordinary management.

Pilot ideas. The four Life projects have been experimenting with design principles, technologies, and materials to various extents — Life Barene and Life Vimine with soil bioengineering methods applied through biodegradable components and Life Seresto and Life Refresh with, respectively, seagrasses and reedbeds widespread transplantations. The extensive implementation of “soft technologies” through hybrid engineering-with-nature approaches fits the brackish marshes’ plastic behaviors and the reversibility advocated by the Special Law for Venice of 1973 (Barausse et al. 2015). However, the Life Program directives narrowly push the focus on morphological structures and ecological performances rather than elaborating on socio-ecological values at the intersection of humans and non-humans. Such projects – even though acting in space – do not integrate any spatial and aesthetic discourse or perspective.

Socio-ecological justice. Life Vimine and Life Seresto have worked together with lagoon communities of fishermen and hunters through facilitating organizations. Among the four projects, they recognized that “environmental issues cannot be separated from socio-economic issues and, often, nature restoration is not a primary prerogative” (Barausse 2023). Such projects take place in an area where people still do live and work and, among all, must try to help counteract abandonment and depopulation, systematizing approaches to these different problems and trying to bring together nature conservation and sustainable local development (Barausse 2023). Restoration is not just a matter of challenging technicalities to solve but rather a process of mutual participation, if only to foster the long-term survival of the project (Higgs 2003).

According to the elements described, the four Life projects carry along relevant traces of innovation in terms of design and planning principles, experimentation and testing, monitoring and management, fieldwork, participation, and employment — if compared to business-as-usual methods and approaches perpetrated in the Venice Lagoon. However, they still encompass

<footnote n="3">³ Provveditorato Interregionale per le Opere Pubbliche per il Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige e Friuli Venezia Giulia (Interregional Superintendence of Public Works), is today what once was Magistrato alle Acque (Venice Water Authority). Today is a body of the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport responsible for hydraulic safeguard, safety and protection of a large area stretching from Veneto to Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, *Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research*) acts under the supervision and guidance of the Italian Ministry for the Environment and the Protection of Land and Sea.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ The strategy was approved within the framework of a memorandum of understanding among Veneto Region, Interregional Superintendence of Public Works, Municipality of Venice, Consorzio di Bonifica Acque Risorgive and Università degli Studi di Padova Department of Industrial Engineering aiming at protecting the sandbanks and inland marshes of the Venice Lagoon from erosion (Regional Council Resolution no. 387 of 31 March 2020). The deliberation arrived only in March 2020 - the executive process was considerably delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the administrative design process representing a unique case in the Venice Lagoon.</footnote>