Designing with Pathways: A Spatial Design Approach for Adaptive and Sustainable Landscapes

Abstract

Despite rising attention to pathways thinking in multiple domains such as climate adaptation, energy supply planning, and flood risk management, their spatial translation is so far understudied. We set out to study how spatial design based on pathways thinking can help develop more adaptive and sustainable landscapes. Using landscape analysis, field research, and research-through-designing in a case study on climate resilience in Boston (USA), we argue for better understanding of the spatial and design consequences of pathways in general. Our results indicate that pathways can be spatially translated, demanding landscape-informed choices when sequencing different policy actions. We found that spatial designing makes the landscape consequences of pathways transparent and enables policy-makers to replace the input of policy actions with spatial interventions, select pathways according to different underlying design strategies, use the mapped pathways to initiate an iterative research-through-designing process to test and inform different designs, and spatially visualize the pathways and possible sequences of actions. We conclude that policy-makers should be cognizant about the spatial implications of pathways and offer directions to enrich applications of pathways thinking for achieving adaptive and sustainable landscapes.

Proposing DAPP-MR as a disaster risk management pathways framework for complex, dynamic multi-risk

“…Additionally, as there is growing attention in research to better understand hazard interactions ( Zscheischler et al., 2020 ; Poljansek et al., 2021 ), the proposed framework to create (intermediate-) adaptive pathways for single- or multi-hazard-related planning can already serve as useful information for sectoral users. This is expected to support the understanding of different sectoral stakeholders for multi-risk and to increase their willingness to participate in the process ( Butler et al., 2020 ; Zandvoort et al., 2019 ; Head, 2019 ). On the other hand, the integration of cross-sectoral knowledge might cause additional challenges owing to confidentiality requirements and lack of trust across sectors ( Scolobig et al., 2017 ) which complicates integrating knowledge and complexity.…”

Which Is More Rewarding in Managing Sea-Level Rise and Hurricane Storm Surge Flooding: Mitigation or Response?

“…(2014) examined in more details some of the challenges and implementation barriers for evacuation in an environmental-justice community, Kirshen et al. (2018) addressed how to involve vulnerable exposed populations in urban adaptation strategy planning and the use of multistakeholder collaborative processes, and Zandvoort et al. (2019) studied how pathway thinking can be used to inform landscape architects to design sustainable and adaptive landscapes.…”

“…This research is the fifth paper of a series of articles on climate change adaptation in Boston. Douglas et al (2012) identified major obstacles and incentives for adaptation based upon representative focus groups, Kuhl et al (2014) examined in more details some of the challenges and implementation barriers for evacuation in an environmental-justice community, addressed how to involve vulnerable exposed populations in urban adaptation strategy planning and the use of multistakeholder collaborative processes, and Zandvoort et al (2019) studied how pathway thinking can be used to inform landscape architects to design sustainable and adaptive landscapes.…”

Design Practices for Flood Resilience in Istanbul: Case of Kadiköy Waterfront

“…1). Dams, dikes, and sea walls are hard infrastructure measures to keep water away from the cities which are grouped as hard engineering infrastructure as mentioned in literature (Vitale et al, 2020;Zandvoort et al, 2019). Accommodating measures support safety by offering building adjustments and retreat from the risk area.…”