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Mobile installation ‘Hydrologic Corridor’ on display in Gaia building Wageningen UR

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March 18, 2016

Till June 2016 you can enjoy a display of the 'Hydrologic Corridor' in the Gaia building of Wageningen UR. The panels revolving on bamboo sticks reflect a large-scale landscape restoration programme in East-Kenya. This mobile installation was made by Peter Westerveld (1951-2014) also initiator of the 'Hydrologic Corridor' in Kenya.

Peter Westerveld was born in Tanzania. After his studies at the Academy of Arts in Arnhem, he returned to Africa to start a safari business in Kenya. Worried about the desertification process, he developed the concept of the 'Hydrologic Corridor' to influence the rainfall regime and moderate the temperature extremes. Over a vast area of 20.000 km2 in the triangle Kilimanjaro-Mombasa-Malindi he planned soil and water conservation measures for natural re-greening in 12 strategically situated areas of 20-25 km2. The evapotranspiration from each of these areas contributes to atmospheric cooling and is supposed to create a more regular rainfall in the whole area.

His ideas formed the working concept for the Justdiggit network to revitalize desertified landscapes in Tanzania, Morocco to start with, through re-greening for sustainable ecosystems, wildlife, ranching and agriculture.

The installation is the culmination of Peter Westerveld’s life work. It brings together photographs made by Peter over the forty years that he spent in Africa, detailed technical drawings which he developed over the last decade, and map images that he learnt to create via Google Earth in the more recent years. These images are combined in plexiglass panels which hang on natural copper wire-bound bamboos, creating a mobile landscape.