Making room for the four main rivers
IJssel, Rhine, Lek, and Waal, Netherlands
Room for the River is a government-led programme addressing the issue of flood protection and the improvement of ecological conditions of catchment areas for rivers in the Netherlands. In 2006, the Dutch government approved Room for the River, a multi-level partnership of the Dutch government, the provinces, regional water boards, and municipalities. The programme ran between 2007 and 2018 and led to the implementation of 34 projects across the Netherlands in the catchment of the country’s four main rivers: IJssel, Rhine, Lek, and Waal.
Challenges: In 1993 and 1995, the Netherlands experienced severe flooding, which inundated farmland and led to the evacuation of 250,000 people and a million animals. Total damages amounted to over EUR 400 million. Following these floods, the Dutch government started exploring how to safeguard flood-prone areas by enabling the rivers to safely absorb far greater volumes of water. Previously, the country relied mainly on the construction of dykes and berms for flood mitigation, so the adoption of nature-based solutions for flood risk management represented a major shift in national policy.
Financing: The project was entirely funded by the Dutch government. The total budget allocated for the project was EUR 2.3 billion. This figure does not take into account ongoing costs, such as future flood protection, as well as maintenance costs of completed projects. An example of these costs is that, after the creation of floodplains, tree growth must be kept in check to make sure that growing vegetation does not reduce the speed of river flow.
Actions and impacts: The projects focused on creating “room for the river” through nine methods that restore landscapes along rivers so that they can better absorb water. Methods include floodplain excavating, depoldering, relocating dykes, lowering breakwater spurs, strengthening dykes, excavating riverbeds, removing obstacles, creating high water channels, and adding water storage. Interventions included a mix of green and grey infrastructure. The catchment areas became safer and more attractive, thereby generating opportunities for improved urban and rural development and creating more recreational areas.
Three ministries—the former Ministry of Transport and Water Management; Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries; and the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment—worked together on one plan to give “room to the river” in each of the identified rivers. The ultimate responsibility for the projects resides with the Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment and is shared by the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs. The stakeholders involved in the project included the provinces, municipalities, water authorities, and the Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat). All stakeholders were jointly responsible for carrying out the Room for the River programme. The programme office was assigned responsibility for completing all projects by 2015 at the latest in collaboration with multiple partners at the
central and decentralised levels of government, as well as with the private sector. This multi-level water governance means that the programme was not seen as a series of isolated projects but as a series of interventions connected by the same targets and budget.
While the overall Room for the River programme has been applauded internationally, it encountered some challenges at the national level at first. The programme required buying agricultural land from farmers and transforming it into floodplain areas, which generated resistance from farmers. However, because the project included the participation of municipalities and local citizens in the decision-making process, farmers became increasingly supportive over time. Local communities could choose between alternative plans, as long as those met the same programme targets. This helped gain and spread the support for this initiative at the municipal level.
An example of how this multi-level governance worked is the project Room for The River Waal. Here, the city of Nijmegen—the project coordinator—worked closely with the Rijkswaterstaat, the Rivierenland Water Authority, and the Province of Gelderland to implement flood protection measures in the occurrence of high water (see case study 14 on Nijmegen).
References
- Room for the River, UNESCO-IHE. (2013). Tailor Made Collaboration, A Clever Combination of Process and Content.
EEA. (2018). The Dutch make room for the river (Interview with Willem Jan Goossen, senior policy adviser on climate adaptation and water, Ministry of In¬frastructure and Water Management). - Van Duin, M. J., Bezuyen, M. J., & Rosenthal, U. (1995). Evacuation in case of extreme water levels, self reliance and care of authorities. COT, University of Leiden, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Leiden Found in: Kolen, B., Hommes, S., & Huijskes, E. (2012). Flood preparedness in The Netherlands: a US perspec¬tive. Netherlands US Water Crisis Research Network (NUWCReN).
- Room for the River Programme website.
©Nick Hall
