The Projects
"The New Polder" is about the area around the Eemshaven in the north of the Netherlands. It is the area where, for example, the short-eared owl occurs, the Montagu's harrier breeds and the polecat seeks out wooded banks. This landscape is interesting to look at through the lens of non-human life because the interests of human actors are so strong and different. It is this region where for example three different and significant policies also converge.
• The Eemshaven as an energy hub in the frontline of energy transition to meet the 2015 Paris agreements.
We are interested in how, for example, the interests of the Wadden Sea relate to the industry and wind farms of the Eemshaven? How do the interests the agribusiness relate to the energy transition and digitalization expansion taking place at the Eemshaven? What does the CO2 emissions of the agro-industry mean for the UNESCO World Heritage Site? And how can a pair of grey harriers, for example, still raise their nestlings here? What is their interest in this landscape?
With the final results, we will enter into the conversation with local people, Groningen Seaports and local policy makers to look at the landscape in a different way to include the interests of human life is executive decision making.
The New Polder (in progress)
To use the New Horizon Initiative method as a "tool" for imagining policy data:
Above is an impression of the landscape elements surrounding the Eemshaven
Conducting research on the Montagu's Harrier bij the foundation Grauwe Kiekendief – Kenniscentrum Akkervogels
• The Wadden Sea, the largest and - in internation al terms - the most important Natura 2000 area in the Netherlands. With these unique geological and ecological values, the Wadden Sea is on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
• The agro-industry where (together with Friesland) this area provides 8% of the world's exports of seed potatoes.
As part of the international Creation Climate Coalition, we presented our first visual stakeholder analysis at the UN Climate Change Summit (COP27) in November 2022 in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt. We showed policy makers, CEOs and politicians what this tourist resort would have looked like if the interests of insects, reptiles, mammals and birds had been included in the design of this environment.
Based on scholarly research from Zakaria Hatim , we created a visual inventory of different types of vegetation and landscape elements that are important for the flora and fauna, site-specific for the Sinai desert around Sharm-El-Sheikh. We looked at the needs of common species, species that have disappeared and species that are on the Red List of the IUCN. We used all of these images to do a visual stakeholder analysis through AI to forecast what the landscape can look like. The outcome envisions how Sharm-el-Sheikh can look like, taking into account the interest of non-human life within landscape design.
"Elysium Desert" (concluded)
To prototype the New Horizon Initiative method
