Greening Flood Protection—An Interactive Knowledge Arrangement Perspective

Abstract

In flood protection, the dominant paradigm of ‘building hard structures’ is being challenged by approaches that integrate ecosystem dynamics and are ‘nature-based’. Knowledge development and policy ambitions on greening flood protection (GFP) are rapidly growing, but a deficit remains in actual full-scale implementation. Knowledge is a key barrier for implementation. To analyse conditions for the implementation of GFP, a knowledge-arrangement perspective is developed. The knowledge-arrangement perspective is applied on a case study of successful implementation of GFP in the Netherlands, the pilot Sand Engine Delfland, a large-scale (21.5 Mm³) sand nourishment project. This project confirms that an integrated knowledge arrangement enables GFP as it allows for multifunctionality. Effectiveness of the integrated arrangement in this project is explained by its ‘flexible’ nature providing ample design space. This was possible because core values in flood protection and nature were not part of the integrated arrangement. More generally the case study demonstrates the difficulties of implementing GFP in existing mainstream flood protection routines. These are not (yet) geared to incorporate uncertainty, dynamics and multifunctionality, characteristics associated with GFP. The Sand Engine project can be regarded as a ‘field laboratory’ of physical and institutional learning and an innovation for mainstream flood protection.

Key Words:

• Flood protection
• the Netherlands
• nature protection
• Sand Engine
• policy arrangements

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the respondents for the interviews and the project team of the project Pilot Sand Engine Delfland. The authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Funding

The research was enabled by financial support of Ecoshape (GOV4.1—project no. 352004).

Notes

1 A variety of terms have been used to more or less the same ideas of more green forms of protection against flooding. For example, we found: ecosystem-based management (Barbier et al., 2008) or adaptation (Hale et al., 2009), ecological engineering (Cheong et al., 2013; Mitsch, 2012), building with nature (De Vriend et al., 2014; Van Slobbe et al., 2013), ecological enhancement (Naylor et al., 2012) or nature-based flood defence (Van Wesenbeeck et al., 2014).

2 Defined by Mitsch and Jørgensen (2003, p. 369) as ‘the property of systems in general to reorganize themselves given an environment that is inherently unstable and non-homogeneous'.

3 The authors of the Ways of Knowing concept are fully aware of this: ‘we come to this writing with only a rough idea of what a way of knowing is and what it is not' (Feldman & Ingram, 2009, p. 124). Muñoz-Erickson (2013) did empirical research into ‘knowledge action systems’. She based her analysis on a network analysis, which provides evidence of the existence of these systems, but does not include the dynamics inherent in ways of knowing.

4 Recreation was also one of the objectives, for which a knowledge arrangement could have been identified. Given our focus on GFP, we restricted the analysis to the interactions among the nature and flood protection knowledge arrangements.

5 RWS is an executive directorate of the ministry responsible for water management. This Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (in Dutch Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat, V&W) merged in 2010 with the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) into a new Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (I&M).

6 Flood protection strategy comprises the maintenance of the coastline and the water defence (dunes or hard structures). These two are separate entities and organizationally split.

7 Involvement differs among regions. For an overview, see Donkers and Jacobs (2005).

8 A European network of nature protected areas under the Birds and Habitats directives.

9 The Sand Engine could possibly affect the Natura2000 site Solleveld and Kapittelduinen and the protected natural reserve Solleveld. In such cases law prescribes an ‘appropriate assessment’. If the assessment outcome indicates significant negative impacts, mitigation, considering alternatives or compensation is required. For the Sand Engine, the appropriate assessment showed possible impact on Solleveld, which could be mitigated by means of management measures.