Room for Rivers a transition in river management policy. Sophie Vermooten

Transcription

1 Room for Rivers a transition in river management policy Sophie Vermooten Sophie.vermooten@deltares.nl Zagreb, 12 th of February 2014

2 What is Deltares? Independent research institute in the field of water, subsurface and infrastructure (Merge of Delft Hydraulics, Geodelft, Part of TNO and parts of Rijkswaterstaat, Dutch department for Public Works and Water Management) Legal form: Foundation, not-for-profit Workforce: about 800 people, 31 nationalities Annual Turnover: 106 million euros National and International activities Unique in-house facilities

3 Content of Presentation Problem definition of flood management along the River Rhine Room for rivers concept: overview International cooperation (In the EU and outside) Room for rivers: examples of measures Planning Kit: Decision Support Tool and role of Deltares

4 The River Rhine length: 1,320 km basin area: 185,000 km² draining off: 2,290 m³/s (D-NL boarder) inhabitants in c. a.: > 50 Mio. drinking water for: 20 Mio inhab. shipping: ca. 11,000 ships ca. 200 Mio. tons 50 % of whole Europe s chemical industry in river basin Karte BfG 4

5 25 June 2010

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7 Flood protection in NL Flood Protection Law (enacted in 1996): every 5 years: safety assessment, evaluation of hydraulic design parameters (design discharges, etc.) every 5 years: check infrastructure, based on updated hydraulic design parameters report to Parliament Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment must provide adequate warning systems and services 2001: new round: Two flood events (1993, 1995) made Rhine River design discharge (maximum discharge capacity) go up from to m 3 /s

8 New design discharge 2001 afvoer Lobith (m 3 /s) Safety standard designed to withstand a peak in water discharge occuring on average once in 1250 years werklijn werklijn / R3294 E000614b herhalingstijd in jaren

9 Urban bottleneck Arnhem (1830 and 2000) Urban expansion over decades has taken away room from the river at various locations (e.g Arnhem and Nijmegen)

10 Loss of room along Rhine, Netherlands Available surface area Surface area (ha) Year

11 Need for a new flood management strategy Due to high floods in the 1990 s the design discharge has increased (from m3/s till m3/s); further increase expected in view of climate change Traditional approach of heightening/reinforcing embankments was being questioned Need for new flood management strategy for short/medium term (2015) and long term (2100) New Concept: Policy Guideline Room for the River to : 1) reduce the increase in design water level; dike heightening only as a last resort 2) Improve spatial quality; enhancing natural and cultural landscape values

12 State of the Room for rivers programme > 30 projects have been selected and decided on at national level (urban, agricultural/countryside and wetland restoration) Budget made available (2,3 billion ), a programme director and staff installed (2006) Responsibility of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, together with the Ministry of Economic affairs. 200 families and 50 farmers relocated Commitment and co-makership of all regional parties involved: 2 Central Government (Ministries)/ Directorate General for Public works and Water Management) 5 Provinces, 8 Waterboards, 30 Municipalities NGO s Contractors

13 >30 projects

14 Room for the River in Europe Co-operation with European partners Funded by INTERREG (IVB)- financial instrument of the European Union's Cohesion Policy Total budget approx. 60 million Euro 14

15 Room for the River: an international co-operation International interest (field trips, visits) Australia USA- China - Korea - Vietnam - Brasil - Poland 15

16 Room for river : measures to reduce design water levels

17 Example: Dike relocation: Nijmegen Lent Current situation Lent trainstation LENT River Waal New quay Railway bridge Waal Bridge NIJMEGEN NIJMEGE N Lowering high water level with 70 cm 17

18 Room for the River project in realisation Nijmegen current situation Nijmegen new situation 18

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23 Example: Depoldering Overdiepse Polder Lowering high water level with 27 cm 23

24 Overdiepse Polder 24

25 Planning Kit: From measures to alternative strategies Planning situation characterised by: quite a few different types of measures a few hundred kilometers of river branches lots of concrete local and regional measures (over 700) which have been identified and elaborated measures have different impacts, costs, etc.. so many alternative strategies are conceivable for improving flood protection for the medium term Planning Kit to support development of alternative strategies in an easy and transparant way

26 What does the Planning Kit do? Shows hydraulic effect and many other effects of individual Room-for-Rivermeasures of combinations of measures gives visualisations of measures

27 Hydraulic effects: it s like a serious game

28 What makes the Planning Kit a useful tool? forms a common knowledge base sense of empowerment: users understand process and science supports and facilitates learning enlarges knowledge of river management people can check the relevance of their own ideas about flood management simple to use complete overview of measures easy to distribute among stakeholders

29 Sharing the knowledge with stakeholders Summary of all research results in an understandable way (simple language, but not simplifying the issue!) Very explicit about uncertainties (what do we know, what don t we know) Therefore: independent and trustworthy Role of Deltares in current phase: Hydraulic calculations (water level) with respect to impact of measures; quality assurance Check on enhancing spatial quality by a quality team (Q-team)

30 Hvala Thank you More info: