Author(s): Ben Gitai; Chiara Lombardi Dellamonica; Beate Jessel

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Abstract: Water infrastructure marks both space and time in evolving landscapes. Canals, dams, and drainage systems show where decades of human intervention meet millennia of geological formation. Traditional water management, however, relies on static maps that often fail to show how water systems, ecosystems, and human activities change with climate and land use. The Orbe-Chavornay region in Switzerland demonstrates this gap for over a century; complex water systems have coexisted with intensive agriculture, roads, railways , and industry in a small area, creating flood risks that conventional ecological maps fail to represent . This research challenges how we perceive and manage hydraulic corridors that no longer fit traditional urban - rural categories. We attempt to transcend the traditional city-countryside and urban-rural divide. As such, the project challenges the current socio-ecological frameworks through which landscapes are perceived and shaped. What were once rural landscapes are now often transitional landscapes, a connective in-between tissue with a metabolic function for urban landscapes. We developed a 360° Moving Map methodology integrating ecohydraulics, different landscape features, mapping water monitoring, governance systems, and water age across landscapes. It examines interactions among blue (hydraulic), green (ecological), and grey (built) infrastructures, highlighting conflicts, synergies, and socio-environmental impacts. Seasonal and daily dynamics reveal critical points where agriculture, liveability, and urban planning problems emerge. Hydrological operations fragment ecological corridors, agricultural drainage alters hydrological conditions, and infrastructure conflicts intensify under climate hazards. Winter and summer variations in water flow create seasonal shifts in availability, affecting irrigation, water quality, energy, and ecological processes. By observing these dynamics across multiple timescales, our method illustrates and makes visible the interconnectedness between these systems. This framework helps communities manage transitional landscapes for productive, ecological, and hydrological functions simultaneously under climate stress in climate- vulnerable regions. 1.Introduction and context Every perceived space is a landscape and deserves attention as such (European Landscape Convention, Florence, 2000). In the complex fabric of landscape today, infrastructures serve as spatio-temporal markers where event-driven history dovetails with long-term geological processes. In other words, infrastructures interact and interface with evolving geomorphological and hydrological formations. Infrastructures crystallize and illustrate moment s of collision and synthesis between the short temporalities of politics and the longer temporalities of environmental and hydrological systems in transitional landscapes. Transitional landscapes are in-between spaces that connect and support surrounding urban areas while remaining ecological, productive, and social places. More specifically, transitional landscapes can be described as both connecting spaces that combine a variety of land uses and places defined by their own aesthetic, social, cultural, and ecological characteristics. They challenge the current socio-ecological frameworks through which landscapes are perceived and shaped. What were once rural landscapes are now often transitional landscapes, a connective in-between tissue with a metabolic function for urban landscapes. The Orbe plain, historically known as a vast marshland, underwent significant drainage works in the 19th century. The two Jura water correction campaigns, followed later by the Wahlen Plan (1940–1945), played a decisive role in reshaping the region's

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64697/iahr.proc.ise2026.abs.221

Year: 2026