The climate adaptation potential of the rural-urban fringe

As global warming continues, cities need to adapt to the changing climate including aggravating floods and increased heat stress. Urban and landscape planners build such climateproof city through the development of green open spaces, who serve as climate buffers. At the rural-urban fringe (RUF) the green open spaces, and farmland in particular, are changing rapidly: re-allocation to built-up land uses and creation of private open spaces such as gardens and horse pastures. This paper studies how these developments at the RUF affect the floods and heat stress in the nearby city. Moreover, it explores the potential of green open spaces at the RUF to alleviate climate impacts at the local as well as the metropolitan scale. The research employs research by design (RbD) on a case study: the Brussels’ RUF, and the watershed of the Vogelzang in particular. Via maps, sections and other design instruments, this paper unravels the complexity of climate adaptation in Brussels and highlights the interlinkage between the city center and the south-western RUF. Due to its’ geographical location, the watershed of the Vogelzang is of climate-strategic importance to manage floods, droughts and heat stress in the urban conglomeration. Following that analysis the paper explores how the watershed of the Vogelzang water can be climateproofed. The RbD builds on a new masterplan for the area that proposes to develop an alternative food network in the area. The paper provides insights into the Brussels’ situation but equally feeds back into the debate about sustainable planning at the RUF. Firstly, it highlights the potential of the RUF’s green open spaces to contribute to climate adaption at the local as well as the metropolitan scale. Hence, the challenge of planning for urban climate adaptation exceeds the limitations of the urban conglomeration and planners must incorporate the RUF within the vision on local climate adaptation. Secondly, this paper illustrates how the farmland at the RUF has great potential to sustainably develop the area, including the creation of climate buffers.