The undisputable human influences on the Earth’s system demand an urgent change of ways and transitions in human systems to sustain a healthy society in the future. Addressing the urgent climatic transformations in deltaic areas, this paper is an attempt of the Delta Urbanism research group at TU Delft to set the line for new (integrated) research inquiries by design and investigate fundamental, experimental, and strategic & operational responses to the existing prospects for action as a way to create collaboration between various sectors. These prospects for action are targeted at four critical fronts (climate, urban, governance, cultural) based on trends and challenges that deltaic areas are facing and to which coherent spatial strategies are needed. These fronts together need a research response to enable the making of the delta of the future through the power of interdisciplinary design. This perspective or prospect is established through six lines of inquiry that are elaborated in the paper. The central question is “how can the research field of delta urbanism provide a transformative ‘prospect for action’ to establish strategic pathways toward a resilient Delta future, where assertion and proof are synergized”? The discussion of the six lines of inquiry, which effectively address the four critical fronts, explores how they are poised to deliver fundamental, experimental, and operational outputs for further research and action.@en

Top world heritage artifacts act as pedestrian flow attractors in historic urban areas. Despite the growing literature on pedestrian movement in cities, evidence of the relationship between cultural attractors and the spatial characteristics of street spaces between these artifacts is scarce. This contribution applies the theory of natural movement and uses diachronic space syntax and micro-spatial
analysis to investigate the reciprocities between street networks and the presence of global heritage attractors in the historic urban area of Rome. The results from the macro-scale spatial analyses show good correlations between the current most popular cultural attractors and the global integration of the street network. The degree of spatial integration of the street network is particularly important at the time of construction of important artifacts, as shown in the diachronic analyses. City growth and urban transformation can affect the central position of these important artifacts. However, in the case of highly attractive artifacts, these
continue to perform as movement attractors. The result of a local neighbourhood investigation shows that micro-spatial parameters, such as the spatial relationships between building entrances and streets, may influence the choice of routes between important artifacts. Thus, the flows of people’s movement can be
influenced by both micro-spatial street characteristics and spatial configuration.@en

The emergence of Airbnb along with an increase in urban tourism has intensified the pressure on urban areas while adding a new dimension to the dynamics of housing distribution, especially in historic cities. These dynamics affect local economies and significantly alter the characteristics of urban spaces, hence the necessity to not only create policies that foster sustainable tourism development but also to advance urban models that explore the relation between Airbnb and the traditional rental and accommodation sector. Through the case of Venice, the present study sheds light on the potential evolution of Airbnb housing in comparison to the traditional rental and homeowner market. In particular, we sought to understand whether a potential equilibrium between these uses exists and if so, at which point in regard to this equilibrium the historic center of Venice is. To tackle this question, methods derived from the field of game theory and specifically evolutionary game theory were used. With the agents (players) being the housing units, the designed theoretical model explored the population dynamics of the housing units in Venice given the three options of homeownership or long-term renting (residential); short term renting or Airbnb (airbnb); and no use (vacant). The findings of our theoretical population game model were validated and discussed with a dataset describing the usage patterns in the city of Venice during the past 20 years. A verification of the outcome through further case studies could eventually provide insights into the future behavior of tourism’s pressure in historic urban areas.

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