definition

The pursuit of a safe, healthy and sustainable water management is of national interest in the Netherlands. Themes like "water and the city", "water as co-planning principle" and “sustainable and resilient water system" are identified as priorities in the Dutch national policy. This is concluded in the two three-stage strategies for:
· Water quantity (delay, store, drain).
· Water quality (prevent, separate, treat). Realizing the goals and strategies of the national water policy is a joint task of the Dutch government, the provincial and municipal authorities and the water authorities, who are signed up to the National Administrative Agreement on Water (June 2008). The basic “living with water” principles of this agreement are:
· More room for water (“dry feet”);
· Stand-still situation: no further deterioration in chemical and ecological water quality from 2000 (“clean, healthy water”) and
· Preventing water problems being shifted to other areas and a later date. In addition, water in the Netherlands has its own place in the spatial decision-making process through the obligatory "Water Assessment" (part of the Planning Act). The process of the water assessment means that when making spatial plans the implications and opportunities for water and/ or planning are considered at an early stage.

Co-benefits and impacts

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Related Links

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Last modified: Sept. 21, 2016, 9:49 a.m.