Case description

The application of the process framework is here illustrated using the example of IFRM for the Island of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. Surrounded by a series of rivers and canals – the Oude Maas, Beneden Merwede, Wantij, Nieuwe Merwede, Dordtse Kil – the city of Dordrecht is located on an island. The population of Dordrecht consists of around 120,000 inhabitants. Most residential areas are located in a single polder area of about 7 ha, which is protected by a 37 km long dyke-ring. The unembanked areas along the riversides have a higher ground level and comprise: a part of the historical inner city; industrial areas; residential areas; recreational and nature areas. The Island of Dordrecht lies in the transition zone between the tidal reach and the river regime reach where the extreme water stages are influenced by both the high river runoff and storm surges from the sea. Together with the city of Rotterdam, a number of smaller cities and the surrounding agricultural and nature areas, the Island of Dordrecht is located in the Rijnmond-Drechtsteden area. One of the six regional sub- programmes of the Dutch Delta programme was set up for this area.

In the context of the Dutch Delta Programme, in 2010 the Dutch government commissioned a MLS pilot project for the Island of Dordrecht (among other) to improve flood safety in an area-oriented development processes. The goal of this pilot project was twofold: 1) to deliver enhanced knowledge and expertise to national policy; and 2) to develop a regional vision for flood safety and insight into possible measures to improve flood safety, potentially combined with other goals to be converted into a regional IFRM plan. This research focuses on the pilot’s second goal by analysing how the collaborative process supported the delivery of integrated outputs in the IFRM plan from 2010 to 2013. The pilot project took place under the direction of the regional authorities (municipality, province, water board and safety region), where the national government actively participated, but did not direct. A collaborative planning process was required for the pilot project, because multiple stakeholders needed to be involved to develop and implement measures in the three safety layers. The distribution of responsibilities amongst government agencies is regulated and clearly defined for flood protection in the area. The water authority Hollandse Delta is responsible for operation and maintenance of the levee system around Dordrecht, whilst the National

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Government sets related protection standards and funds the investment costs for these levees. MLS, however, requires collaboration between a wider group of stakeholders with various interests and means that are not (yet) coherently managed, funded and/or regulated. The second safety layer of spatial planning is primarily the responsibility of the Municipality of Dordrecht at a local level and of the Province of South Holland at a regional level. Additionally, many other stakeholders affect or are affected by spatial developments such as: private developers; landowners; and inhabitants. The Safety Region South-Holland- South is responsible for emergency planning in the third safety layer. The Safety Region comprises emergency services such as: the fire brigade; police; and ambulances. Also, increased preparedness of operators of critical infrastructures such as water and energy utilities and communication companies can reduce flood consequences.

For the pilot in Dordrecht stakeholders came together in a Learning & Action Alliance, a ‘shadow network’ that comprised voluntary participation of representatives from all of the organisations involved. A shadow network was considered necessary by the participants, as there is no blueprint to organise the IFRM process for the application of the new MLS approach. A shadow network is an independent platform for collaboration to work with alternative approaches for governing socio-ecological systems (here: flooding system) to experiment and generate alternative solutions to emerging problems (Olsson et al., 2006). The shadow network consists of representatives of relevant stakeholders with no formal authority. Consequently, it does not adhere to existing governance structures and provides a learning environment where stakeholders can leave entrenched positions to work and learn together unconstrained by formal political positions (Van Herk et al., 2011a). Such informal participatory platforms can occur even in a rigid and strongly structured administrative environment (Moellenkamp et al., 2010). Existing institutional arrangements are often not sufficient for IFRM (Huntjens et al., 2011; Wong and Brown, 2009) and the same holds true for the Netherlands and MLS. The existing procedures and instruments in the Netherlands adhere to persistent government structures and policies that were designed based on a sectoral approach for flood protection, rather than integrated approach to flood risk management (Van der Brugge et al., 2005). Hence, the first goal of the pilot was to support national policy development. Related to the second goal, to make an IFRM plan, the IFRM process comprised an initial stage of strategy development, whilst actual realisation of the plan, including the delivery of urban (re)development and infrastructure development projects, if at all, is foreseen as happening over the coming decades. These aspirations required flexible network structures and governance that allowed for learning.

Process design and management for integrated flood risk management:

exploring the Multi Layer Safety approach for Dordrecht, The Netherlands

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