Year: 2001
Type: report
Abstract: Climate change may well make very high river discharges more likely in the Netherlands.This follows from scenario calculations with models of climate and hydrology in the river basins of the rivers Rhine and Meuse.Current policies and flood protection schemes may prove not to be adequate for dealing with increased flood risks.This study looks into the ability of Dutch institutions that relate to floods to adapt to climate change.An analysis of the contemporary history of flood risk policy making shows that institutions changed at the strategic level.The changes comply with the contextual, social trends of naturisation, integration, democratisation and internationalisation. Events, such as the 1953 flood catastrophe and the midnineties near-flood disasters, were the triggers to changes in flood management.Current flood risk strategies take account of a rise in the probability of hazardous river discharges, and take account of the inherently unpredictable nature of climate and river discharges.Implementation of these new strategies, however, encounters many operational difficulties, since it has concrete impacts on many areas, particularly land use planning, hitherto largely separated from water management issues.An analysis of the advancements of the Maaswerken project -a series of works along the river Meuse that should simultaneously serve the interests of flood safety, navigability, gravel extraction and nature conservation shows that, when implemented, integrated planning is not able to take account of all intricacies, different interests and sensitivities of the many stakeholders.Spatial planning is an area most affected.Water management should become (again) a guiding principle in spatial planning.Open planning -the substantial involvement of stakeholders in formulation of the problems and their solutions -could avoid impasses in decision making.Finally, Chapter 9 wraps up and draws conclusions for adaptation policy and research. References
Authors: A.A. Olsthoorn, Richard S.J. Tol
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1585811048