Developing the transboundary Long Term Vision of the Scheldt Estuary – an untold story

ABSTRACT

The development of the bilateral Long Term Vision for the Scheldt Estuary between 1999 and 2001 reveals that it is possible to move from a history of conflict to cooperation in just two years. A retrospective, insider perspective is used to analyse the integrated three-layer hybrid modelling at the heart of this groundbreaking agreement. We tell an untold story of the collaborative eco-morphological modelling activity that served as a boundary object supporting communication and contributing to a model-based metaphor of the intrinsic character of the estuary – its most lasting contribution.

KEYWORDS:

• Scheldt Estuary
• boundary object
• three-layer hybrid modelling
• conceptual ecological model
• transboundary decision-making
• vision development
• Belgium
• the Netherlands

Acknowledgements

The members of the Nature Working Group (NWG) and colleagues at Resource Analysis are acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Data availability statement

Supplementary data on the meetings of the NWG are available from the author upon substantiated and reasonable request as they contain personal information and would have to be individually redacted.

Additional information

Funding

The publication of this article was made possible by the Multi-Actor Systems Research Programme of the Delft University of Technology. The original work was carried out while the author was employed at Resource Analysis in Delft.