A Landscape-based Approach to Exploring Transformative Capacities of Danish Coastal Cities in the Light of Sea Level Rise

Human-induced climate change, rooted in landscape practices and intensified by the Great Acceleration, manifests in altered waterscapes, increased flooding, droughts, urban heat islands, and biodiversity loss. These conditions call for renewed, integrative landscape practices that support urban transformation, climate adaptation, and mitigation.

This paper explores the potential of reinterpreting coastal landscapes in relation to settlement patterns from a long-term, intergenerational perspective. Drawing on Design with Nature and ecological planning approaches, it aims to foster landscape literacy in urban transformation. The study is based on the ongoing research project *What are we building on the edge of the future?* (2023–2025), which examines 54 Danish coastal cities and towns.

Using landscape architectural analysis, GIS mapping, historical sources, and field-based visual studies, the research investigates how cities are situated within their landscapes, how flood-risk zones shape urban development, and what landscape-based transformative capacities emerge over time. The paper identifies development tendencies along Danish harbourfronts, relates them to broader landscape structures, and highlights underutilised potentials for future coastal urban transformation that consider both human and non-human dimensions.