Flood Risk and Water Management in the Netherlands

Abstract

French version: Le cadre législatif et organisationnel de la gestion du risque d’inondation aux Pays-Bas - http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:87b38e7a-913e-45da-8408-87684e91c7c6 As in most countries legislation for flood risk management and crisis management in the Netherlands was driven by disasters. European Directives increasingly influenceour legislation, consequenty we apply experiences from other countries for ourlegislation. The Floods Directive was an initiative of France and The Netherlands. Thegoal of this Directive is to have integrated flood risk management plans, coveringflood alerts, spatial planning, flood defenses and response and rescue services. Flood Management in the Netherlands has been successful the last 60 years because of adaptive changes in our organizational, legal and financial tools and institutions. Flood Risk Management and Water Management are integrated in the Netherlands. Flood defenses only last if there is adequate funding for maintenance and regularoverhauls. By combining daily water management and flood risk management, the same people are involved who have a detailed knowledge of their water systems and flood defenses. However crisis communication between water managers and crisis managers fromthe emergency services is still an important issue for improvement. The Katrina 2005 flood in New Orleans was a wakeup call for the Netherlands. Even though the Netherlands has very high flood defense safety standards a disaster is still possible. This process, communication between different departments and agencies, receiveda boost with the TMO national disaster exercise in 2008 “Water Proof”. This report describes the Dutch context of flood risk management, the institutions, disasters which influenced our flood risk policy and disaster management, our flood protection standards for flood defenses, flood risk management, financial issues, large projects, urban planning and the choice not to insure against flood risk, the influence of European legislation and finally specific issues concerning our disaster management and response. Some current and unresolved issues are also covered, financing the next round of major overhaul of flood defenses 2015-2023, preparing our flood risk management for 2050 and 2100 and finally “conflicts” when applying different European Directives concerning flood risk and nature conservation.