Water management and multiple land use: the dutch approach: competing and complementary functions in water management

Climate change, food crises and deterioration of the environment create immense challenges in water management. In the Netherlands land subsidence, high population density and intensity of land use aggravate these problems. Increased awareness of these problems and civil society's participation in the discussions complicate these challenges. The Netherlands' Government Service for Land and Water Management (DLG), an organisation specialising in integrated land development, has tackled these problems at a regional/local scale. Land use planning for various different functions within the same territorial area require a special approach to reach sustainable and economically feasible solutions. Different functions of land and water require different hydrological/hydraulic conditions. Therefore regional, physical and socio‐economic characteristics determine the conditions for land and water management strategies. Projects are implemented while different interests such as agriculture, nature and water have to be met according to a participatory, multi‐stakeholder and integrated approach. Therefore the DLG developed special instruments, tested them in practice and applied them. Examples are ‘touch table’, ‘sketch match’ and ‘virtual reality’. The projects that the DLG is involved in are increasingly implemented in cooperation with regional/local public institutions. These projects are directed by provincial governments, the regional authorities with overall responsibility for the implementation. Several examples will illustrate this.