The self-sufficient city needs to provide for much of its own needs in terms of food, energy and processing of wastes. To become this way, the city needs to rely on its surrounding area. There is the need to establish a symbiotic relationship where the city can benefit from the hinterland without jeopardizing the exact qualities of the hinterland.

In this interdependency the city and the (rural) region act as equal partners. However, these days the cities’ interests seem to dominate. Therefore we propose a strategy that will trigger a (economic) revaluation of the hinterland and will create this synergetic relationship between city and region. We illustrate this by looking at the Delta region near the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

The delta must provide high quality products for the surrounding cities. Thus it can serve as a vegetable supplier, power generator or a producer for the pharmaceutical industry. To enable this the landscape needs to be organized into key areas for large-scale agriculture within the historic polders. The remaining (more recent) polders will be better integrated with the estuarine ecology and the area will receive an increased supply of water. Here the farmers are encouraged experiment to tryout new types of farming
(combined with healthcare, seaweed farming) or to use the adjacent plots of nature (picking crops from nature, free roaming cattle). Thus the Deltaregion will conserve its scenic quality and attractive housing environment.

In the year 2030 the delta establishes a symbiosis with the surrounding urban area. The delta provides food, quality products, energy, recreation, knowledge, work and ecological qualities. The revaluation of the delta area provides a counter against the demand of the cities. The vitality of the hinterland will allow the urban areas to further intensify and be more self-reliant. This creates a vital delta region, where the balance between Delta and the Delta town is guaranteed by citizenship.

Created at HKB Stedenbouwkundigen together with Movares