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Local knowledge in the Herk and Mombeek valleys leads to innovative water management model

19. Nov 2024
© Jonas Roossens

Turning the Herk and Mombeek valley into a ‘resilient sponge landscape’ will require massive water buffering, surface dedrainage and even crop changes. This is evidenced by the innovative, results-driven water model that was designed based on local knowledge of the area.  

Since 2023, Architecture Workroom Brussels has been coordinating a groundbreaking living lab in the Herk and Mombeek river basin in Haspengouw (Belgium). The aim: to develop, together with a coalition of local stakeholders, a practice for the transition to a resilient sponge landscape.

In the first phase of the living lab, we asked the coalition to share their local knowledge about the valley of the Herk and Mombeek. Together with the Regionaal Landschap Haspengouw & Voeren and the secretariat of the Demer basin, they collected all relevant map data and terrain measurements they could find: where the valley flooded in recent years, which pools dried up, which municipalities filed damage claims and where exactly drainage is located. Based on this, we determined together in which years the damage was acceptable and in which not. Modelers from Sumaqua and KULeuven processed all data into a digital water model and confronted the damage limit we had pinned down with the risks posed by climate change.

The model identifies concrete objectives that can turn the area into a resilient sponge landscape. To be armed against drought, about half of the territory must be connected to an infiltration facility and a quarter of the area must be dedrained. To prevent severe flooding, it is also necessary to buffer 1,500,000 m3 more water. In the driest places, even irrigation facilities or crop changes are needed.

The sponge measures should eventually land in the natural areas, near the watercourses, in the village centres, on the fields and on the fruit plots. At sub-basin level, AWB translates the goals into strategic development directions, and Cluster Landscape Architects designs different scenarios for two focus areas. In March 2025, the coalition refines this work into a realistic action plan.  

Follow the Living Lab Herk & Mombeek closely on this page. 

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WORKROOM

Since 2010, Architecture Workroom Brussels has focused on the future of our living environment. The organisation began as a safe haven to address the link between space and societal transitions, aimed at fostering a futureproof design practice, commissioning and building culture.

It has now become evident that the transformation of our streets, neighbourhoods, and landscapes is both a prerequisite and a lever for achieving societal goals in synergy. Yet we observe that these transformations remain difficult to imagine and implement. They span so many sectors and involve so many actors that responsibility falls on everyone, and therefore, ultimately, on no one.

That is why we make it our mission to create the space that connects them. And with this refined mission comes a new name: WORKROOM, House for transformation. WORKROOM is the shared space where the future of our living environment is not only imagined but also organised.

We are currently taking the lead on three mission-driven transformations:

  • SOCIETAL INCUBATORS - By 2030, stakeholders from the youth, culture, sports, care and education sectors will join forces to create renewed societal spaces that tackle loneliness and counteract the fragmentation and pressure on public infrastructure.
  • FOSSIL-FREE NEIGHBOURHOODS - By 2030, at least ten neighbourhoods will be underway with the transition to fossil-free energy in an inclusive and affordable way, with a view to completely phase-out fossil fuels by 2040.
  • SPONGE LANDSCAPES - By 2030, we will have achieved our water, agriculture and nature goals through a single, coherent approach at catchment area level, in which strong regional coalitions collectively enhance the landscape's sponge capacity.

To make these transformations a reality, WORKROOM works shoulder to shoulder with pioneering designers, local authorities, organisations and businesses, governments, knowledge institutions and impact investors.

Through co-creative design, we imagine shared pathways to the future in exhibitions, publications, innovation programmes and public programmes. These are the workrooms where we connect the actors capable of realising these transformations. From there, we design shared ownership and the organisational, funding and policy models that lead to real change.

The name is simpler. The stakes are higher. WORKROOM is the shared space where we tackle the social and spatial transformations that no one can achieve alone. In an era of polarisation, compartmentalisation and instability, that is perhaps the most radical thing we can do.