4.3 Description of presence in the future sub-system

The presence of the future system for accommodating the community has to obey to some rules and regulations to define the behavior of this system. With the goal of creating a sustainable system by improving the facilities and increasing the winter tourism, the total integrated rhythm of Texel will change from its current state. So, in order for this plan to succeed, there is the need of defining those rules in which it will operate.

With a more spread out tourism during all year long also the culture of Texel will be influenced resulting into occupied winters instead of the winters with low activity. Technologies help to attract more customers to Texel during winter should therefore be limited into just visual presence to prevail locals from opposing to the project. Locals must be questioned into their willingness, and rules where this impactful technologies will be placed should be set. Most likely this will be outside their own areas, but their opinion has to be evaluated too.  

Besides this, the culture will be influenced a lot indirectly by the technologies. Nowadays it is not uncommon to move to Texel because of the quiet times during offseason. If the occupation by tourism is also during winter, locals might reject such events. Even the park and camping owners would need to shift their whole working strategies. It results into accommodating employers during the whole year and managing the parks and camping at an equal pressure all year long. Therefore, to limit the impact on human resources, rules have to be set on how many tourists can be attracted to each park or camping. Limiting the crowds that are able to use the facilities or even limiting the extra needed human resources on the island is of a huge importance. 

Moreover, technologies that are the most prevailing to accommodate a more sustainable accommodation sector will be make a shift towards the ‘sustainable tourism sector’ and retrofitting. “Retrofitting” means adapting a house to lower the wasted energy, by for example, replacing single glass with double glass to increase the insulation properties. By this way less heat will transfer from the inside to the outside and less energy will be needed to keep the house comfortably warm. It would be noticeable on the foreground in the beginning, but during the use of these retrofitting houses it will turn more and more to the background.

Besides transferring high energy consuming houses to low consuming houses, the greater benefit of retrofitting is that the current materials will still be used. The concept is simple: there has been already put a lot of energy into constructing the materials from which the houses are made. This is what we call “embodied energy”. For example, to create even one brick, a lot of energy has already been used for shaping it. When the houses are demolished, most of these bricks will be downgraded to be used in roads. The most energy efficient way is to keep using the same materials, and improving/retrofitting the current housing. It can be said that it will benefit the implemented technologies, but will also keep the users within a known environment. Little by little the same actions should be taken for all the buildings on the island, even those hosting just services. 

The interrelation between all systems shows mostly by the leveling of the tourism sector that will increase the demand for human resources during the winter. Moreover, increasing the energy efficiency of housing can also create a greater demand for houses in Texel. When the goal of being energy self-sufficient is received more and more people from outside the island might be attracted. So, in order to keep the total population at a sustainable level, clear guidelines have to be made to keep the numbers stable.