Building with Nature

Building with Nature contributes to tour Danish delegation

15 September 2017 - Published by Eric Boessenkool
A Danish delegation visited the Netherlands from September 13th to 15th. 40 representatives from different sectors, including members and consultants of municipalities, water utilities and private businesses were discussing issues on water management, safety and spatial planning. The three day programme of this Water in the City Study Tour, also included presentations of the Interreg NSR projects Building with Nature and FRAMES.

The tour was organized by the Danish network Water in Urban Areas with cooperation of many Dutch public and private organizations like the Netherlands Water Partnership, provinces, cities, the Dutch ministry and the Staff Delta Commissioner. Objectives of the visit were to share innovative approaches on integrated flood control, to exchange views and to learn about strategic governance.

Spatial planning
The main issue on this expert meeting was how to diminish flooding in metropolitan areas. The Danish delegation visited the cities of Rotterdam and Dordrecht to see examples of spatial planning giving room for mainly pluvial water, but also anticipating on flooding. There was special interest for creating nature based solutions. In the Hague the delegation was hosted by the province of South Holland.

Cooperative approach
There was an interesting discussion after the presentations of FRAMES and Building with Nature. Both Steven Krol (project leader FRAMES) and Egon Baldal (project leader Building with Nature) stressed the value of a cooperative approach by sharing and exchanging knowledge. Steven mentioned the dilemma of reserving tax money for long term future investments, while the counsel is just running for four years. Egon showed the map with European projects with a Danish heart. “We don’t operate on our own; we search for the coherence between several initiatives in the Netherlands and Denmark and want to use the seven Climate Change Interreg NSR projects as glue.”