Mechelen and the River Dijle: A city rediscovering its treasure - WATSUPS Urban Diary #1

The City of Mechelen is rediscovering its relationship with the River Dijle. For historical reasons, like many cities across Europe, Mechelen has turned its back on the water. Primarily, the river was seen as an artery for trade and industry, which, over time, pushed the water to the margins – both physically and culturally. The River Dijle became a backdrop. Today, the City of Mechelen is breaking with this perception and aims to unlock the full potential of the river by enhancing urban liveability, resilience, and social justice. In short, Mechelen is rediscovering its treasure.

Central to this ambition is the WATSUPS (Water as the Source of Urban Public Space) project, funded by the European Urban Initiative. Over 3.5 years, Mechelen is reimagining the River Dijle as a green-blue corridor at the heart of the city’s urban fabric. However, the project is not only an intervention in urban space; it is an ambitious endeavour to reconnect residents – both human and non-human (animals and plants) – to the river and each other. WATSUPS weaves infrastructural changes (in public spaces, nature-based solutions, etc.) with ecological restoration and social and cultural changes related to Mechelen’s urban ecosystems. From a comprehensive co-creative process with its citizens to a permanent swimming zone in Keerdok, and an art bridge to raise awareness of the river’s ecosystems, each intervention in the project is a stepping stone towards a city that is connected to the water.

In case you missed it, here is a short summary of WATSUPS and the background: Beautiful, Sustainable, Together: Reimagining Mechelen’s relationship with water, biodiversity in urban public space while tackling gentrification.

By using the New European Bauhaus’ principles (beautiful, sustainable and inclusive) as a guide, the project aims to create multifunctional public spaces that offer direct access to the water while fostering ecological stewardship and social inclusion. An effort which does not go unnoticed, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted in her opening speech for the New European Bauhaus Festival in 2024:

“(..) take the Belgian city of Mechelen. There, a green space will be created along the river, with terraces and swimming spots. In an area undergoing gentrification, this New European Bauhaus style project will ensure that everyone has access to the beauty of nature.“

Mechelen’s renewed focus on water is an ambitious step that is more than just an urban facelift – it is a shift in mindset. The River Dijle will be a central part of the city’s narrative. The first year of WATSUPS showed that the ambitions of the City of Mechelen have the potential to inspire urban transformations worldwide… but change does not come without challenges.

Read on to find out more about the key moments of the first year, the challenges the WATSUPS team encountered, and the key lessons that may help others who are driving change in their cities.

Meet the Team: City of Mechelen

A project of this scale is only as strong as the people driving it forward. The City of Mechelen’s WATSUPS team brings together a dynamic group of problem-solvers and visionaries with unique expertise and energy. When meeting the team, you quickly sense how well they work together, despite the various backgrounds. The key to a motivated team that drives urban change is the mindset they share: trust, adaptability, and a commitment to making WATSUPS work—even with the smaller and larger inevitable daily challenges.

“Assembling the right team as soon as possible is crucial,” says project manager Ranja Van Asbroeck. “If I could start over, I’d push for hiring even earlier. Our project is demanding, and in a public administration, recruitment takes time. Every delay has effects on valuable momentum.”

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The core-team brings together different city departments, each member playing a key role (from left to right):

• Ranja Van Asbroek - Project Manager of WATSUPS; keeping it all together
• Michiel van Mele - Biodiversity expert; from microscopic bacteria and fish in the water to birds soaring in the sky, his deep understanding of nature ensures that the right nature-based solutions are selected and implemented, allowing ecosystems to thrive.
• An Schepers - Engineer; Never has cold feet: the designs for the reconstruction of the streets, the quays, the youth chill zones and the swimming area ... thanks to her studies and creative eye, they all come to fruition
• Barbara Enckels - Sports; is a pioneer in open-water swimming, both legislatively and athletically; on sunny days, you can regularly find her swimming in the Keerdok
• Grete Hellemans - Communication manager; is ensuring smooth internal communication: in the city administration, to citizens and stakeholders, and effectively publicising the project.
• Kathy Marivoet - Financial officer; ensures with her keen eye that the budget is managed in accordance with regulations, keeping finances on track
• Mark Van der Veken - Participation and co-creation; is hearing many voices and in his case this is a good sign, as he ensures that not only residents and stakeholders but also nature itself has a voice in the process.
• Giusi Fancello - Co-creation intern; amplifies the many voices for Mark

Not in the image:

• Nicole La Iacona - Strategic funding advisor; natural connector, making her the ideal liaison for transfer cities and related projects
• Steven Op de Beeck - Steven brings the artistic perspective. With his dedication and deep knowledge of the cultural sector, he ensures that meaningful artworks will be realised along the river, enriching the landscape and community.

Trust and flexibility are key to anchor complex urban transition projects across city departments. In innovative projects, not all things will work on first try (and they should not, as we will discover later). Trust and flexibility provide safe spaces for everyone involved to experiment, fail, learn and refine.

This experimental mindset is part of the team’s weekly meetings, which are a place for solving arising challenges, discussing shifts (for example in policies) or technical hurdles and finding ways forward collectively. When talking to the individual team members, it is striking how strong the team works together and how the implementation of the project is driven by curiosity, an experimental mindset and a strong personal ambition to transform Mechelen for the better. It becomes evident that for the team, WATSUPS is way more than a financial means.

Besides the core-team of the City of Mechelen as the main urban authority involved in the project, there are project partners which are key to the implementation of the project, for experimenting with participatory approaches, balancing stakeholder interests and bringing in important knowledge and experiences without which the project would not be able to succeed: Flemish Waterways (owner and manager of our river the Dijle), Thomas More University of Applied Sciences (Knowledge expert on new technologies in participatory processes), Flemish Environmental Society (crucial in measuring and improving water quality) and Mechelen Cultural Events NGO (provide a cultural touch to the experience of the inner Dyle).

Key insights from the first year

WATSUPS is no ordinary, straight forward urban project, it is carefully orchestrated and weaves together multiple activities, perspectives, disciplines, and ambitions to reconnect ALL residents of Mechelen, human and non-human alike, with the River Dijle. It is the interplay among the different innovative parts, project partners, and stakeholders which unlocks the project’s transformative potential.

This part unpacks the individual components of the first year of the project and situates them into a broader (analytical) context. It highlights how ambition and theory meet with practice. It is a deep dive into why these single, often small interventions matter, what has been achieved so far, what lessons have been learned and how the team navigated challenges.

WATSUPS consists of various innovative building blocks which, when combined, result in careful orchestration of activities leading to urban innovation. These building blocks match with the principles of the New European Bauhaus and provide those wanting to learn from the experience of Mechelen with an overview of the innovative parts of the projects which could be translated into other cities and urban contexts. This analysis was done with the EUI Transfer Expert Antonella Radicchi to provide the projects’ transfer cities (Leeuwarden, Kristianstad and Catania) with a “learning menu” from which inspiration could be drawn for projects back home. These building blocks are:

• Biodiversity and the more-than-human co-creation approach
• River and Public Space for Community Recreation 
• Art as a regenerative tool to create awareness for urban green and biodiversity
• Nature-based solutions and biophilic design
• Leaving no one behind: from Do-it-yourself urbanism to accessible and inclusive public space design

The WATSUPS Citizen Assembly: A tested co-creation tool

One of highlights of the first year was the WATSUPS Citizen Assembly. The results of this participatory approach influence the years to come of the project (and beyond). What’s so special about the citizen assembly is that the voices of nature played an essential part: An experiment for ecological democracy in practice from which many others can learn.

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The WATSUPS Citizen Assembly (Copyright: City of Mechelen)

Mechelen has a tradition in public participation. The idea for parts of the WATSUPS project resulted in previous participation processes. The WATSUPS Citizen Assembly continues and deepens this tradition of democratic engagement by inviting residents with different backgrounds to co-create the basic principles for all WATSUPS activities.

As public administrations across Europe grapple with trust and inclusivity in governance processes, Mechelen’s approach offers a case study into how residents can be empowered to discuss difficult and complex topics. The citizen assembly brought together 35 residents who volunteered to work together on the future of the River Dijle on five days across multiple weekends. The 35 residents were drawn by lot, based on some socio-economic characteristics such as gender, age, education, origin and address in the city. Due to this selection process, the group reflected the population of Mechelen well.

In parallel, a participatory process aiming at engaging those people living in vulnerable conditions was conducted to ensure their perspectives are reflected in the outcomes as well.

Read more about the process of Mechelen’s Citizen Assembly here: Co-creating with and for nature.

What sets Mechelen’s citizen assembly apart from others is how the co-creation process was balanced between informative parts focused on obtaining knowledge that allows participants to take on the perspectives of others living in and around the Dijle, and a co-creative part where personal opinions, ideas, and needs were combined with new knowledge to co-create basic principles for the reconstruction of public spaces along the Dijle.

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_{The members of the citizen assemby where introduced to the ecosystems along the Binnendijle in a boat tour (Copyright: City of Mechelen)}

The work done can inspire many other urban actors to take a bold approach towards including the voices of nature in projects that address ecosystems and planetary boundaries.

Here are some learnings and key messages from conducting the WATSUPS citizen assembly, which aims to inspire others to include the interests of animals and plants in co-creation processes:

An experiment for a democracy of species in practice: Ensuring that the voices of nature are heard in the co-creation process is a rarely tested example of the democracy of species (for more, see: Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Democracy of Species), which recognises the role different species play in an ecosystem, contributing to the whole. Each species plays a role in maintaining resilience.

By using different more-than-human personas in the co-creation process, the WATSUPS citizen assembly ensured that the intelligence, agency, and value of all living beings are respected in the reconstruction plans in and around the Dijle. In that sense, the citizen assembly safeguards that animals and plants at home in and along the river are understood as a community of subjects rather than objects.

Empowering residents by using expert knowledge: Understanding the life and ecosystem in and around the city’s waterways requires more than maps and data—it requires knowledge that allows people to perceive the environment as animals and plants do. During the information phase of the citizen assembly (read more here), participants learned about the ecosystem in and around Mechelen, the animals and plants dependent on the water of the Dijle, and witnessed the lives of the more-than-human inhabitants firsthand on a boat tour. Additionally, experts participated in the co-creation workshops to answer questions.

At the end of the process, there was a role-play. The advice formulated was assessed again by the residents' group, but this time everyone was given a persona from the fauna and flora of the Dijle. In these ways, the opinions were tested against the interests of nature and the non-humans were given a voice.

The process is everything: The WATSUPS citizen assembly is an example of how a diverse group of people who had never met before can become a group exchanging ideas, interests, and opinions. However, to allow participants to contribute and ensure that their voices are heard, the process behind the citizen assembly is key.

Be transparent and accountable: After the work of the citizen assembly concluded in June 2024, the WATSUPS team discussed the outcomes internally with various services and departments. In September 2024, during the Construct Europe Festival, Mayor Bart Somers, together with other city officials, met with the citizen assembly to discuss the next steps and how the results of the citizen assembly will be used in WATSUPS and for further projects, around the Dijle, in the future. Engaging the mayor in the process and reporting back to the citizen assembly generated transparency and accountability while valuing the contributions of the participants.

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_{Mayor Bart Somers in conversation with the members of the WATSUPS Citizen Assembly (Copyright: Johannes Riegler)}

The work of the WATSUPS citizen assembly has concluded, but the results will be used broadly in the project and beyond. The designers of the public spaces will ensure that the basic principles of the citizen assembly are translated into urban plans. Furthermore, the City of Mechelen has the ambition to use these principles in the future at other projects around the river. For doing so, a checklist (you can download it here) for all departments in the city is developed and will be used for projects that involve urban ecosystems and nature in the city.

Creating awareness among residents for the project

Besides the changes in the built environment, WATSUPS has a strong ambition to reconnect people with nature by increasing residents’ awareness of the ecosystems in the city, especially along the River Dijle. Many activities in the project focus on communicating its ambitions, fostering empathy for the natural world in urban spaces, and experimenting with various formats and tools to invite residents to experience nature firsthand—whether through observations, arts and culture, or participation in surveys at information stands throughout the city.

Here are some activities the project team implemented throughout 2024 with the ambition of inviting residents to experience the River Dijle in a “deeper” way.

Creating Europe Festival 2024: The River at the Centre of the Programme

The Creating Europe Festival 2024 was initiated to celebrate the Belgian Presidency of the EU. Various events, from culture to music, community activities, and exhibitions, were organised throughout 2024. The goal of the festival was to show how Europe is close to its citizens and how it impacts our cities.

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_{Programme of the Cultuur Splash (Copyrights: City of Mechelen)}

During the Cultuur Splash at Construct Europe from 19–22 September 2024, the River Dijle became a focal point. A diverse range of activities unfolded along its banks, from the final event of the citizen assembly to concerts designed to bring the river and the surrounding public spaces into sharper focus for the public. Information events provided an opportunity for the city to inform festival-goers about the WATSUPS project, while performances, including poetry slams, creatively interpreted the ecosystem and biodiversity of the river.

By transforming the city into a stage and placing the Dijle at the centre, the festival provided WATSUPS with a powerful platform to reshape how Mechelaars perceive their river. This initiative stands as an exemplary model of how art and culture can be integrated and used as communication tools for urban transition projects.

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_{Information totem during the Cultuur Splash Festival (Copyrights: City of Mechelen)}

Elevating the river as a central part and stage of the programme helped foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of its ecosystems while also raising awareness of the WATSUPS project among the city’s residents.

Citizen Science: The Bioblitz

Imagine strolling along the Inner Dijle, spotting a bird, taking a photo and reporting it via an app and only realising later that you’ve just contributed to a major biodiversity study—this is the essence of the Bioblitz.

Creating awareness and educating residents of Mechelen is a key aspect of the WATSUPS project. One central tool to achieve this is the Bioblitz, which was tested in Mechelen during the summer months of 2024. A Bioblitz is a time-limited survey of biodiversity in a specific area where residents are invited to identify and record the more-than-human inhabitants (plants and animals) along the Inner Dijle and log their findings via the ObsIdentify app.

ObsIdentify is a wildlife identification tool that helps users recognise plants and animals by uploading photos, with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

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_{The first bioblitz along the river Dijle took place in June and July 2024 (Copyright: Johannes Riegler)}

The 2024 Bioblitz was very popular, with a record of 669 species recorded, of which almost 200 were spotted for the first time, hundreds of sightings recorded by the residents of Mechelen. The results informed a study on biodiversity in the Dijle (more on that in the next articles and podcast episodes of WATSUPS). The Bioblitz will be repeated in 2025 and continues to be a citizen science activity with a very low threshold for participation. It invites residents to perceive their environment with “open eyes” and develop an understanding of the ecosystems around them.

The Dijle Bingo – A Simple Educational and Awareness Tool for Young People

The Dijle Bingo is, as the name suggests, a bingo game developed primarily for children. The bingo squares on the card feature different animals and plants typically found along the Dijle, as well as human-made items (e.g., litter). The goal is to cross off all squares. Once a player calls "Bingo" and visits the city administration during one of their public information events, they receive a temporary tattoo featuring either a duck named Germaine or a heron called Oscar. Fun fact: Germaine and Oscar are actual animals living along the Dijle. The guides of the tourist boats gave them the names and regularly introduce them to the visitors.

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_{Germaine and Oscar: The stars of the Dijle Bingo (Copyright: Johannes Riegler)}

With just a simple game card, Dijle Bingo changes a walk along the river into a nature hunt exploring the ecosystems in the immediate surroundings, making it a powerful way to engage young people. If you happen to be in Mechelen in summer 2025 and want to discover the hidden life of the Dijle, then join the next Bioblitz and contribute to the comparative biodiversity study.

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_{Someone got Bingo and won a fresh (fake) tattoo (Copyright: City of Mechelen)}

Challenges of the first year of WATSUPS

In innovative projects, there is always a challenge or an unforeseeable twist around the corner. In the first year of WATSUPS, the project team had to navigate local elections, find balances across different interests and policy domains and deal with other day-to-day challenges linked to the project.

Local elections slowing down the process

On 13 October 2024, the Mechelaars went to the polls to elect the Municipal and Provincial Councils. Elections often bring a shift in political direction and, with that, changes in innovative projects. In Mechelen, Bart Somers, the mayor of Mechelen since 2001 (except for his tenure as a Flemish minister from 2019 to 2023), was re-elected. The outcome of the election ensures the continuity of the project with strong support.

Yet, changes in the local administration occurred, as is often the case in local politics. The composition of the Municipal Council saw shifting roles and new decision-makers taking the lead in different policy areas. These political transitions temporarily slowed down the momentum of WATSUPS. WATSUPS is an ambitious project of almost 5 Mio Euro of which the project's individual components are very interdependent. Also, the project has a tight timeline. 

Engaging and convincing the newly elected aldermen of the activities requires extra effort. Newly appointed political decision-makers bring fresh eyes to the project, but activities that were already planned are being questioned. The challenge is to ensure their support and convince them of the project's relevance. While not a significant risk for the project, it is a challenge that should be anticipated by project teams and urban practicioners when implementing ambitious, large-scale projects.

The challenge of accelerated urban transitions

Urban transition projects of the magnitude of WATSUPS need time to fully unfold and communicate their benefits. However, the ambitions of the project are high, and the timeline is dense. Losing (too much) time during implementation will have consequences towards the end of the project running time. On the other hand, it is important to create a support base for change. And this requires time to listen to concerns and to talk to residents and stakeholders.

In the first year of WATSUPS, people not directly involved in the project found it difficult to follow all the steps. It requires a skilled project manager to keep the different activities together, provide direction, address the required legislative processes, and manage interests of all stakeholders involved.

Balancing interests is key!

The river Dijle is more than a scenic feature in the historic city centre of Mechelen: it is a tidal river connecting the city to the North Sea and people like to take their boats from the city centre out to open waters, for recreation, for fishing or for exploring the region’s rivers and canals. But boats need to stop somewhere: Along Dijlestraat and Tichelrij, boats moor on landing cases (see picture), cutting off street-level access to the water. Access to the pier is restricted to boat owners and those with permission to enter. As WATSUPS aims to open up public spaces to the River Dijle, the boats in the city centre pose a significant challenge: where should they go? Relocating them is not an option, as there are no alternative mooring spots in or around the city.

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_{Boats along Dijlestraat and Tichelrij in Mechelen (Copyright: Johannes Riegler)}

This is an urban dilemma: competing priorities, stakeholder interests, and policies collide in an urban transformation project. The Flemish Waterways manage and maintain the waterways in Flanders. The organisation balances the interests of freight and passenger transport with flood prevention, water quality, and ecological restoration. As a partner in WATSUPS, their expertise and mandate are crucial. However, their core mission to represent stakeholders’ interests sometimes collides with the project's vision.

At the time of writing this first chapter of the WATSUPS Urban Diary, discussions were still ongoing to find a solution that works for all while ensuring the project's aims are met.

The project team approaches these challenges heads on by working with the Flemish Waterways and chisel out a compromise.

When being asked what the trick is to navigate these challenges, the project responded: Listening, thinking outside the box, finding creative solutions and humor are the key words to get everyone on the same page – a practice lived throughout the project team of WATSUPS.

Poor water quality at Transit W

The Dijle is a tidal river, and for flood control reasons, the water is dammed in the eastern part of the city centre. A recent study commissioned by the project team highlighted that the water quality is poorer than expected in the eastern part of the river, presumably because of the lack of exchange of water. However, the exact reasons for this are currently unknown, making it challenging to implement measures to improve water quality.

One reconstruction site of WATSUPS, Transit W, is situated in this area of the river. The site is close to a climbing hall, an skate park and party hall, and is mainly visited by young people both of which are frequently visited by young people and children.

Initially, the plans considered direct access to the water, the installation of a youth zone, do-it-yourself urban furniture in public spaces, and water access for kayaking and stand-up paddling. While these activities do not pose direct risks, the project team is concerned that people using the space may be encouraged to swim in the water. In the design phase of WATSUPS, these considerations will play an important role.

Location of facilities for open-water swimming at Keerdok

Sometimes, seemingly minor aspects of urban change processes become major challenges. In Mechelen, the location of the facilities and bathrooms for the swimming zone in Keerdok proved unexpectedly difficult to solve.

Next to the swimming zone is "Den Ouwen Dok," a municipal swimming pool open to the public from 1924 to 2001. The building was repurposed and reopened as a hotel in recent years. Initial plans to use the changing rooms of the former bathhouse failed due to an important detail: the building is listed as a protected heritage site with specific reconstruction requirements. Due to these regulations, the walls of the changing rooms and sanitary facilities would have needed to be made of a transparent material, such as glass. This would defeat the purpose of  a sanitary facility or a changing room, whose function is to provide temporary privacy for users.

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At Keerdok, a temporary swimming zone was implemented  in Summer 2024, in the background: Den Ouwen Dok, a former public bath turned into a hotel and one of the construction sites for new housing (Copyright: Johannes Riegler)

To find a technically feasible, cost-efficient, and simple solution, various stakeholders and project partners were consulted. The area is currently undergoing large-scale construction of privately owned apartment buildings, which complicates finding a solution even further, since these apartments are being sold based on current plans. Home buyers would not be happy if they are surprised by the facilities right next to their new home. After negotiations and discussions with various stakeholders, a solution was found: the facilities will be located on the water in Keerdok, right next to the swimming zone.

Communicating with not-yet-existing residents

As previously mentioned, the area near Keerdok is undergoing significant transformation, with new apartments being constructed on former industrial land. Communicating with the owners of these privately owned apartments presents a challenge: how to engage future residents who are purchasing properties based on the current state of the public spaces, with the expectation of minimal change.

WATSUPS will introduce a permanent swimming zone near these buildings. Once in place, this zone will attract families, children, teenagers, and lap swimmers for a refreshing dip in the water during the summer (and winter), which will inevitably generate some noise.

To ensure future residents are informed about the swimming zone, the WATSUPS team has engaged with the companies constructing and selling the apartments, encouraging them to communicate about the swimming zone to their customers. Additionally, a campaign has been launched in the public spaces nearby to increasethe awareness of the project.

In the summer months since 2023, a temporary summer swimming zone was installed in Keerdok which further provides future residents with an experience of how the water will be used and the potential impact it will have on the surrounding area.

It is difficult for local people to follow the speed of project implementation

The high ambition of WATSUPS, with tight timelines, parallel activities, and multiple layers, is both a challenge and an opportunity. On the one hand, it ensures that a significant transformation occurs within 3.5 years. On the other hand, the speed of implementation is challenging for the project team and difficult for the local public administration to follow. The project's speed and innovative nature require flexibility and adaptability—qualities not often associated with public administration.

“For implementing the project, it is so important to have an openness to listen to each other and work together in a rock ’n’ roll kind of manner: be open to taking risks, and if you fail, you learn from it and try harder, making yourself and the project stronger,” says Mark Van Der Veken when asked about how the team addresses the challenge of WATSUPS’ speed of change.

Lessons Learned

For the team of the City of Mechelen, the first year of WATSUPS has been intense, yet central to the success of the project. When asked what they would have done differently and what the key learnings beyond the project results were, they shared some personal insights into how they navigated within and beyond the project in the first year, ensured progress and support while maximising learning.

Use results beyond the project! Many activities, reports, studies, and processes developed by WATSUPS are useful for the work of other city departments which are not directly involved in the project. The team of the City of Mechelen is committed to upscale the findings and outcomes of the project across departments and activities. For example, the studies on biodiversity and the results of the citizen assembly will be used to influence decisions, policies, and projects in the future. “Our work of improving Mechelen will not be finished when the project ends in 2027, but the results and learnings will live on in our city,” says Ranja Van Asbroek, Project Manager of WATSUPS.

A no is not a no! Regardless of how much support there is for the implementation of a project, you will run into barriers: either across city departments, at the political level, with stakeholders and project partners, or with other actors who are central to the project. A simple “No” can mean a standstill for a project like WATSUPS and can have effects on the project plans. What is central is to see the “NO” not as a full stop but as an invitation to do it better, change the approach, rethink, and learn along the way. A “No” can be an invitation to look outside the box and find better approaches and solutions. Not becoming discouraged is central to the success of projects like WATSUPS.

It is wrong to be right too early! Innovative urban projects thrive on experimentation, testing, discussing, and figuring out different approaches. While often in project proposals it is required to show that the approach of the project is solid, most of the project implementation is about figuring out how to do it exactly along the way. Learning from failure, balancing stakeholder interests, and gathering all information, insights, and perspectives before making (tough) choices are central to innovative projects. A clear vision for the project, which functions like the North Star and to which all stakeholders and project partners are related, is key to more open discussions and figuring out approaches to make innovation happen. People need to follow the philosophy of the project to have this sense of openness. In the sense of testing new approaches and being innovative, it is wrong to be right too early; it is part of the innovative process to figure out how to do it, when to do it, and whom to involve.

Keep it focused and simplify wherever possible. Projects like WATSUPS provide endless possibilities for experimentation and testing different approaches. The key is to stay focused and use methods and tools consciously because they will bring the project to the next level. Especially related to the academic research part of the project, it is essential to simplify to the core processes and purpose of the project, even while there might be many more interesting leads to follow.

What's next for WATSUPS?!

During the first year of the project, the team at the City of Mechelen worked hard to keep the timelines and ambitions of the project on track. It was a turbulent and busy year that set the scene for the project's success. As an observer, you can recognise how deeply engaged and motivated everyone involved in the project is. They are motivated not only to make the best of the project but also to learn from experiments and failures. The mindset with which the team approaches challenges is remarkable.

From the first year of implementing WATSUPS, many important lessons can be learned at various levels. On the one hand, the experiences from Mechelen provide valuable insight into the project's themes, foremost engaging residents via the citizens' assembly and employing innovative methods to communicate with the Mechelaars to create a mental shift in the perception of nature and ecosystems. On the other hand, by working together closely, the team developed skills and learned lessons essential for driving urban change in a city.

While the first year was busy for everyone involved in the project, the second year will not be any calmer, with major activities and developments for reimagining the River Dijle just around the corner. You will be able to read about the second year in Urban Diary #2, to be published in March 2026.