Author(s): Pim Nijssen Ma
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Integrated Water Management; Water Governance; Climate Change; Stakeholder Management; Urban Development
Abstract: Two near-flooding disasters in the middle of the nineteen-nineties resulted in a fundamental change in the attitude towards safety in the Dutch river areas. In contrast to the approach adopted for many decades, when the rivers had been enclosed and the height of the dikes had been raised, the creed for the new Millennium was: 'Room for the River ’. This approach resulted in a national program comprising over thirty projects costing a total sum of over 2. 2 billion Euro. A unique approach in the sense that space was given back to the rivers, unique in the sense that flood risk management was combined with other spatial developments and unique in the sense that it was based on a full new governance approach: regional bodies were made responsible for the planning and implementation process. The ‘Room for the River Waal’ project at Nijmegen is the largest and the most expensive, has the biggest impact, but also the project with the greatest exposure. The project demonstrates that expanding the area available to the river is also highly compatible with the development of new urban qualities. At Nijmegen they have turned the threat of river flooding into an opportunity to create a whole new waterfront and an urban island in the river Waal. This unique approach has also led to international recognition: the project has been rewarded with the prestigious International Waterfront Award in New York at October 29th 2011whereas the project’s communication strategy won the Red Dot Public Space Award in Berlin at October 7th of the same year
Year: 2013