GO-CAWH ENDREPORT

March 2025

This report outlines the research conducted by Design Academy Eindhoven from September 2023 to January 2025 for the GO-CAWH project, which is led by Rijkswaterstaat. In this project, Design Academy Eindhoven collaborated with the University of Groningen and Coöperatie Kloostersland.

A common territorial challenge in Northwestern Europe is balancing water supply from rivers and rainfall with the demand from farmers, water boards, citizens, and businesses. Climate change exacerbates water needs during dry periods while heavy rainfall can create surpluses. The project aims to develop Climate Adaptive Water Hubs (CAWHs) around hard infrastructure, such as highways, providing scalable and adaptable solutions for water management, including capturing runoff, maintaining water quality, and supporting ecosystems amidst extreme weather events.

Community Development in Climate Adaptive Water Hubs (GO-CAWH), together with Rural Roadwater Rescue (RRR), is part of the broader Sponge Works research initiative, which is currently seeking funding. These sub-projects aim to develop a validated approach for community development centered on circular water use, leveraging highways as both water reservoirs and community resources. The objective is to investigate how highways and their surrounding areas can be designed to supply road water to nearby communities during dry periods, adopting an area-integrated planning approach. In this report, we present the participatory perspective as a crucial element in this endeavor.