By combining different perspectives and methods of empirical research, this PhD thesis
generates multi-disciplinary insights into the rise of the logistics complex and its planning
discourse whilst focusing specifically on XXL distribution centres (DCs) in the Netherlands.
Since the 1980s, the building footprint of this complex has increased fourfold, to approximately 80 million square metres, generating a new large-scale landscape type: Landscapes of Trade.
The research addresses urgent issues regarding the seemingly ubiquitous growth pattern of DCs in the Netherlands, the dominant and increasingly challenged policy narrative of the Netherlands as a ‘gateway to Europe’, and the public-private actor network that appears to fall short of adequate DC planning and development. Other issues are the claimed employment benefits of DCs, the balance of the benefits and burdens of logistics, and the provision of useful spatial planning information for logistics clusters in the emerging circular economy. This thesis shows how historical, economic and institutional dynamics have shaped the rampant expansion of the logistics complex in the Netherlands. The thesis argues that a new logistics policy narrative is necessarily grounded in the contemporary dynamics and policy goals that are quite different from the conditions in the 1980s. Further research and planning practice along these lines would include open information provision in the logistics spatial planning discourse with an international scope, intensive and multifunctional land use, reverse logistics enabling circularity in DCs, as well as added value of DCs for local communities and businesses.@en

The Euregio Maas-Rijn can be considered a Polycentric Urban Region (PUR), a region that consists mostly of medium and small-sized cities. The region is divided by three national borders, but the opening of European borders has enabled the region to cooperate more. PUR’s have access to the same level of agglomeration benefits as a single, large city, when cultural, functional and institutional integration in the region increases. In this thesis the focus is on functional and institutional integration and their relationship. Within functional integration the focus is on the public transport network, in line with the increase in congestion in the car network and the raising awareness of climate change. Within the Euregio Maas-Rijn (EMR), its dispersed polycentric urban pattern, and lack of cross-border public transport connections show a disconnected and underdeveloped regional public transport network that does not relate to the urban pattern. The exclusion of power-actors in public transport in the main governance structure on the euroregional scale, obstructs cross-border projects to be realised.
The design shows how functional and institutional integration can be increased, and in this create a stronger region. Design principles form the foundation of the design strategies and create the link between literature and spatial design, in particular the literature on the increase of integration in rural urban regions. The principles focus on the integration of public transport and the urbanisation pattern, the integration of the euroregional, regional and local scale, and the integration of governance structures.

Integration as one of the major paths to social cohesion is a task of urban development and restructuring (Glick Schiller & Çaǧlar, 2009). A growing number of scholars refer to the importance of urban opportunities that facilitate integration processes via the empowerment, interaction and participation of social groups (Glick Schiller & Çaǧlar, 2009; R. Kloosterman, 2010; Kurtenbach, 2013; Räuchle & Schmiz, 2018). Arrival cities, viewed as the key intersection between migration, integration and urban development, are the subject of this study. Borrowing theories, methods and interventions from different disciplines, this project designs opportunity structures for migrant integration within the intersection of space and the legal-political, socio-economic and cultural-religious dimensions of integration. Following an introduction on arrival cities, this project examines how opportunity structures facilitate the integration process in Hamburg and how a strategic design approach can generate new opportunity structures. By viewing migrants as place-makers, this project is driven by a positive view on arrival neighbourhoods and migrants’ self-organization.

Flood risk is increasing due to climate change and the growth of the potential consequences of flooding. Analysing how flood-proof the spatial plan is, therefore becomes more important. Since most spatial planners have limited knowledge concerning flood risk, the Netherlands’ Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management commissioned the creation of an instrument that can be used by planners to gain a better insight into the flood risk. However, this instrument is used inadequately. This research focuses on the question: What are design requirements for an instrument that helps to assess flood risk during spatial planning processes? And, what does this set of requirements mean for the design and use of the current MLS Explorer?

This resulted in the findings that lead to a programme of requirements, the main findings were:
(1) The best moment to use the Explorer is early in the spatial planning process; (2) The Explorer is most interesting for local government organisations such as municipalities and water boards; (3) The information that is presented must be understandable and useful, a list of information items is distilled from flood risk analyses that were found in the different case-studies; (4) Finally, the presentation format should be adjusted into a more visionary way to make the Explorer easier for spatial planners to use. On the basis of these results and the interview findings, a programme of requirements was compiled. The instrument should:
1. Be accessible and rapid to use
2. Provide understandable output
3. Be flexible
4. Be credible
5. Be easy to use for communication purposes and official planning documents
6. Provide sufficient information for a decent flood-risk assessment

The current Explorer was assessed on these six requirements. Its overall score was insufficient, but the gap between the current version and the ideal version is not very large. The Explorer received the best score on the first and last requirements, since it is accessible (requirement 1) via the internet and it takes about 5 minutes to analyse one geographical area, and it presents sufficient information for a decent flood risk assessment (requirement 6). However, for the remaining four requirements, improvement is possible. The understandability (requirement 2) for spatial planners could be increased by using terms and figures that are commonly employed in that field. Increased flexibility (requirement 3) would serve two purposes: making the instrument more interesting for users with varying degrees of background knowledge, and making it more suitable for exploring an area by testing different scenarios. The Explorer’s credibility (requirement 4) should be improved by fixing bugs that make the instrument unreliable. The instrument’s suitability for communication (requirement 5) between parties at the beginning of the spatial planning process could also be enhanced. Such adjustments would facilitate meaningful conversations instead of first needing to wait for the release of research reports.
Based on these requirements, this thesis gives a suggestions for a new design in order to give a concrete idea for adjustments that could improve the quality of the MLS Explorer.

From the environmental point of view, future mobility (positive) and the change in the hydrological system (negative) are taken as trends from which the urban program needs to develop. This research starts with the conception that the Strategy of te Two Networks (S2N) internalizes a method that could help face the given challenges occurring both globally and as tested in San Francisco. The primary objective of this thesis, is to put this product of the Dutch planning tradition in another context and explore its potential in the San Francisco context. The theoretical foundation of the strategy for multifunctional Green-Blue infrastructures is driven by future mobility.

The test-case of this approach is located in San Francisco. San Francisco lies in a unique natural context and possesses great capital which is of great value for the whole Bay Area. However, this capital is under pressure of future dynamics, caused by decades of human interference without acknowledging the natural conditions of the Bay. This uncertainty makes San Francisco an unsustainable city to for people to settle in the future.

The aim of the project is to provide a method in which integrated engineering and urban planning and design will mitigate environmental crisis in a scenario of future technological interventions in mobility. Moreover, the aim is to revalue the S2N, in order to develop a conceptual framework that guides and structures this approach.

The San Rafael canal district is an example of a high density, low-income neighborhood in a flood risk area. A combination that is becoming a global problem, and will likely grow with future climate change. In this thesis strategic spatial planning, water management interventions and goverenance policies are used alongside in an attempt to protect the local residents, giving them a chance to grow with the future economic development of the district.

Trujillo, is the second most populous metropolitan area of Peru, with a population of around 950 000 inhabitants. Its urban growth has happened within unsustainable patterns, like massive urban sprawl in low density, and it seems to continue in the same direction.
Next to that, the tourism sector in the country has grown in the last decades, and Trujillo has experienced this growth as well, due to the wide array of socio-cultural and environmental attractions, both natural and built, that it posses. In this context, the district of Moche holds one of the main spots that attract tourists to visit Trujillo, the Huacas del Sol y la Luna. However; the profit generated from the tourism sector does not necessarily go to improve the spatial conditions of the district, which currently faces unregulated urban sprawl, putting into risk its agricultural and archeological assets.
Hence, it is urgency to think in ways of how can tourism be a tool that helps the district to reach levels of sustainable development, in all its dimensions: social, economic and environmental.
This thesis research aims to find linkages on how by improving environmental conditions (of both urban and rural areas), the social and economic ones can also be positively affected. Moreover, the proposal, a strategic spatial plan, considers the governance aspect, thought as a key element for making the plan possible.
And although the scope of the proposal goes at district level, it takes into account its context at metropolitan and even regional ones, in order to make a balance of how the proposed projects could have an impact in the bigger tourist route.