Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015 ECO-FRIENDLY RIVER BANKS DUTCH PART OF THE MEUSE RIVER A Policy Assessment Authors: - C.G. Deval (3920321) - J.P.J. de Kinderen (5529182) - M. Zoutendijk (5559596) Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences MSc Program, Water Science and Management Course: Water Policy, Governance and Law Utrecht, 29-06-2015
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ECO-FRIENDLY RIVER BANKS DUTCH PART OF THE MEUSE RIVER · banks along the Meuse River. Appendix 1 shows an overview of constructed Eco-friendly-river banks along the Meuse River.
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
ECO-FRIENDLY RIVER BANKS
DUTCH PART OF THE MEUSE RIVER
A Policy Assessment
Authors:
- C.G. Deval (3920321)
- J.P.J. de Kinderen (5529182)
- M. Zoutendijk (5559596)
Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences
MSc Program, Water Science and Management
Course: Water Policy, Governance and Law
Utrecht, 29-06-2015
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Appendix 1. Natural river bank locations Meuse River ................................................................. 30
Appendix 2. Cost indications for the construction of an Ecofriendly-riverbank ................. 31
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the policy measures taken pertaining to the
establishment of eco-friendly river banks in the Dutch part of Meuse river basin. It
further examines the policies with the aim to provide recommendations on the policy
design. It was found that eco-friendly river bank projects are still in its early
implementation phase and are actively being monitored. Farmers have high stakes in
the development of eco-friendly river bank projects in Meuse basin and therefore are
being involved in the project at the early stage. The responsibilities and authorities for
such projects are shared between the public and private parties. However, enforcement
is still very intricate, especially when it comes to controlling diffused pollution sources.
Overall, the current policy measures pertaining eco-friendly river banks appear to be
effective and sufficiently developed. However, with new insights these policy measures
may require review.
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INTRODUCTION
Anthropogenic influences on the global water system have been very well documented
(C. J. Vörösmarty et al., 2010; C. Vörösmarty et al., 2004). Water quality is keystone to all
the roles that water plays in sustaining life. Yet, the ever increasing population and
escalating economic and agricultural activities, over the years, have deteriorated water
quality worldwide. The extant anthroposphere is the manifestation of the economic
activities and the anthropogenic modifications such as land cover changes (Meybeck,
2003). As a consequence of these anthropogenic perturbations, rivers, worldwide, are
facing myriad challenges such as bank erosion (Urban & Rhoads, 2003), nutrient loading
(Carpenter et al., 1998) and loss of habitat and biodiversity (Vaughn, 2010). The water
bodies in the Netherlands have not been an exception to the consequences of
aforementioned perturbations. The surface water quality in the Netherlands especially
as it relates to nutrient loading is below average. For instance, The Dutch part of Meuse
river basin is spread over 7700 Km2 area and encompasses the entire province of
Limburg and parts of the province of Noord-Brabant, Zuid-Holland and Gelderland.
Agricultural is most predominant land use in this part of the basin, making the river and
other water bodies susceptible to nutrient loading from agricultural runoffs. Both, the
chemical and ecological status of Meuse River has been reported unsatisfactory,
especially because of the exceeding concentrations of certain chemicals used for
agriculture ending up into the river (Rijkswaterstaat, 2009b).
Water quality being central in sustaining ecosystem calls for management policies that
advocate measures for eco-friendly river banks. The notion of eco-friendly river banks
aims at making the river banks nature friendly. This implies managing the river banks in
such a way that the impact on ecosystems is minimized as far as possible while at the
same time benefits continue to be reaped from the functions that the river banks
provide. For instance, allowing the vegetation to flourish along the river banks will not
only stabilize the bank but will also encourage thriving of biodiversity. Furthermore, the
vegetation growth will facilitate nutrient accumulation, preventing the water body from
nutrient loading. In addition the vegetated banks will also function as a buffer zones
thereby reducing the flood intensity. The eco-friendly river banks will also add the
aesthetic and recreational value to the system.
The policies pertaining the river bank management do advocate the measures for eco-
friendly river banks. However, this concept is still relatively new and is still in its
execution stage. The present paper, therefore, attempts to evaluate the policy measures
taken pertaining to eco-friendly river banks, especially in the context of Dutch part of
Meuse river basin. Further, based on the policy assessment, the paper aims at providing
recommendations on policy design. The research question of this paper is as follows:
“Are the currently used policy methods effective and do these policy methods contribute to
sustainable management of the Meuse river?”
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ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY
The evaluation of the policy measures is based on the recently developed multi-
dimensional interdisciplinary policy assessment method. The method consists of ten
building blocks which underlie the three dimension namely the content, organization
and implementation. Further these three dimensions are interlinked (See Figure 1).
Each building block is equipped with its own assessment criteria. Depending on this
criteria, policy measures for the Dutch part of Meuse river basin for each building block
were assessed in isolation. Once the each part was addressed individually, the overall
zoomed out perspective was adopted to look at the interactions amongst the different
blocks.
Figure 1: Multi-dimensional water management and governance. Adopted from Van Rijswick et al. (2014a)
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ASSESSMENT
1. WATER SYSTEM KNOWLEDGE (RIJKSWATERSTAAT, 2014)
The assessment question of this building block comprises the following:
“Is there sufficient knowledge of the existing water system in order to deliver the required
service level of societal functions? If not, what are the gaps; is sufficient knowledge
available to assess the impact on the water system because of changes in environment and
societal functions?” (van Rijswick et al., 2014a)
The Meuse Riveris a river that has its roots in France and flows via Belgium into the
Netherlands. The total length of the river is 935 kilometres, of which about 250
kilometres lies in the Netherlands. During the past the Meuse River has incised itself in
the landscape. This is especially noticeable in the area between the boarder of Belgium
and the Dutch city Cuijk. In this area a stair-shaped landscape has formed with different
elevations. For Dutch standards this is a unique landscape. In this area dikes are not
always necessary since the natural banks are high enough to secure areas from floods.
From Cuijk to the downstream parts of the Dutch the Meuse river valley with a lot of
height dynamics is smoothly changed into a more flat landscape. In this part of the
system the river flows through an area which is protected by high levees. From here the
river water flows via de Bergsche Maas and the Nieuwe Waterweg into the sea. During
periods with high discharges a part of the Meuse River water is transported to sea via
the Haringvliet.
The point where the Meuse and the Rhine River are connected with each other is called
the “Rhine-Meuse river mouth”. The water levels in this area are influenced by tides of
the sea and less by river discharges. This influence of the tides are especially caused by
the Nieuwe Waterweg. On high tide salt water can enter the Nieuwe Waterweg and
therefore can reach parts of the Meuse River. During periods with low discharges and
high water levels on sea, the salty water can also reach the Haringvliet and the
Hollandsch Diep.
The transition of river to sea water consist of a complicated branched system of
different waterways. Small riverbanks in this area could fall dry during low tide. The
nature area named the Biesbosch was from origin a freshwater tide area. Since the
government decided to close the Haringvliet and Hollandsch Diep these tidal influences
are almost completely disappeared. However this area is still an attractive landscape
with different ecosystems, flora and fauna. Some water streams which flowing close to
the “Rhine-Meuse river mouth” are located far under MSL.
The Meuse River belongs to one of the most important waterways in the Dutch river
delta. After canalizations and the construction of the “Maas-Waalkanaal” the Meuse
River become increasingly important for navigation. For example: In 1930 about 15000
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
container ships were passing the sluices in Sambeek. In a time period of 50-75 years this
number increased up to ±66000 container ships. In order to maintain enough water
depth in the Meuse River for navigation a lot of sluices and weirs are located along the
river.
Along the Dutch part of the Meuse River seven weirs are located. These weirs maintain a
water depth of at least three meter in order to make navigation possible. In the past, in
1976, the Meuse water levels were too low and navigation was not possible. Since this
year governments started with the implementation of new techniques to maintain water
levels in order to prevent future problems. A good method to solve these problems was
an efficient use of sluices.
The sluices in the Haringvliet are completely closed if the discharge by the city Lobith is
lower than 1100 cubic meters a second. During periods of higher discharges the sluices
are gradually opened. If the discharge rates exceed 10,000 cubic meters per second the
sluices will be opened completely. This program has as main goal to maintain enough
water depth for navigation and to prevent salinization.
Rijkswaterstaat wants to improve the Meuse river ecosystem by constructing eco-friendly river banks. The main goals of eco-friendly river banks are (Rijkswaterstaat, 2015):
Cleaner and healthier water; More room for the river, which decrease flood risk; Create good habitats for flora and fauna.
There are a lot of factors that influence the efficiency of an eco-friendly river bank. Rijkswaterstaat has a schedule up to 2016 for the construction of eco-friendly river banks along the Meuse River. Appendix 1 shows an overview of constructed Eco-friendly-river banks along the Meuse River. The first phase was up to 2012 where almost 36.5 kilometres of eco-friendly river banks were constructed. Up to 2015/2016 another 33 eco-friendly river bank projects are expected to be completed.
Conclusion
Enough quantitative and qualitative knowledge exists pertaining to the Dutch part of the
water system in the Meuse river basin. This is evident from the indicators such as
hydrological characteristics, nutrient loads as mentioned in the river basin management
plan (Ministry of Transport Public Works and Water Management, 2010). However
there are still gaps in the knowledge about the functioning of eco-friendly river banks in
the Meuse River. Many eco-friendly river banks are recently constructed (period 2010-
2015) and therefore research data about long term impacts on the Meuse River basin
are scarce.
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
2. VALUES, PRINCIPLES AND POLICY DISCOURSES
The assessment question of this building block comprises the following:
“Is there sufficient knowledge of shared or conflicting values, viewpoints and principles
(represented by different policy discourse coalitions) for water issues and their
consequences for facing water management issues?” (van Rijswick et al., 2014a)
Values are the reflections of goals of different stakeholders in achieving certain status or
implementing certain project, in this case eco-friendly river banks. Principles on the
other hand are the general character. Policy discourse is a reflection of the goals of all
the stakeholders along with the values and principles.
Values
The different stakeholders in the Dutch part of Meuse river basin have different set of
goals in working towards eco-friendly river bank. The stakeholders at the national level
such as the Dutch state with the help of its ministries have the goals of protecting and
improving the chemical and ecological status of the Meuse river by reduce the impacts of
the activities on the its bank that hamper the ecological and chemical status of the river.
Whereas the stakeholders at the provincial level such as the local water boards and
municipalities aim at building with nature by providing more space of nature and water
storage and also improving the recreational and aesthetic values. The stakeholders at
more regional level such as the farmers and the landowners are more interested in
having a stable river bank that is more suitable of their activities such as agriculture.
Other stakeholders at the regional level include the shipping industry and
environmental organizations like the NGO’s. Environmental organizations owing to their
inherent values towards nature and biodiversity, support eco-friendly river banks.
Principles
The polluter pays principle and the principle of solidarity are extensively included in the
policies for water management. However, implementation of the polluter pays principle,
especially in case of diffused sources of pollution such as agricultural sources is very
difficult. In the Netherlands, the solidarity principle functions as a central principle
especially in water management (OECD, 2012). Two more principles that the water
service users need to comply with include the principle of cost recovery and the benefit
principle. The cost recovery principle advocates recovering costs in the same river basin
where they are incurred while the benefit principle advocates financial assistance from
the users that are benefited from the water services (Lazaroms & Poos, 2004).
Policy discourse
The water management in the Netherlands involves public participation and is a
consensus based model where the inputs from the local residents is taken into account.
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
Conclusion
It is evident from the discussion above that different stakeholders have different values.
The values of some stakeholders such as shipping industry and farmers don’t coincide
with the idea of eco-friendly river banks owing to their business oriented outlook.
However most of the stakeholder’s values coincide with each-other. In general it could
be said that there is a shared interest amongst different stakeholders and values are
more or less non-conflicting and are leading towards eco-friendly river banks.
Construction of eco-friendly river banks can, thus, be considered as a no regret measure
owing to the functions that it will provide. Over all it could be concluded that there is
sufficient knowledge of shared or conflicting values, viewpoints and principles for issues
and their consequences for facing water management issues.
3. STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVEMENT
The assessment question of this building block comprises the following:
“Are all relevant stakeholders involved? Are their interests, concerns and values sufficiently
balanced considered in the problem analysis, solution search process and decision-
making?” (van Rijswick et al., 2014a).
Stakeholders and their responsibilities/ interests
The water framework directive (WFD), which regards river basin as a primary unit of
water management, in its article 14 advocates close cooperation and coherent action at
community, Member State and local level (European Commission, 2000). This should
include involvement of the public. Public should be informed and consulted and should
have access to the time frame of the works to be done under river basin management
plans. However, the member states are on their own responsible for bringing the WFD
into practice.
The aforementioned public involvement can be broadly categorized into three classes
which include public communication, public consultation and public participation
(Rowe, 2005). The stakeholders in the Dutch part of Meuse river basin can be broadly
categorised into five categories. These include i) the Dutch state, ii) the Provinces, iii)
water boards, iv) municipalities, v) and local residents, farmers, land owners and
shipping industries. Figure 2 shows position of these stakeholders based on their
influence and importance in working towards eco-friendly river banks. For instance ‘The
Dutch state’ is placed in the extreme right corner because it is most influential as well as
important when it comes to establishing eco-friendly river banks. On the other hand, the
shipping industry comparatively is less influential as well as important and thus find a
spot in the middle in the importance-influence matrix.
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
Figure 2: Stakeholder importance-influence matrix
Each stakeholder has certain interest and/or responsibility, in the Meuse river basin
which are further elaborated below.
The Dutch state
At the national level two ministries are responsible for certain tasks pertaining to water
management in the Netherlands. These include the Ministry of Infrastructure and
Environment (IenM) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ), formerly known as the
Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation.
Responsibilities:
IenM is responsible for flood protection and water management on the national scale
and for national environmental policies that include, amongst others, elements such as
setting the discharge standards, water quality, drinking water and sewerage system. EZ
is responsible for agriculture and nature management as well as food safety on a
national scale. It is responsible for putting the WFD into practice.
Interests:
Together these ministries are interested in:
complying the goals of WFD pertaining with nature
Developing river basin management plans
Establishing and maintaining good chemical and ecological status of water bodies
Improving stability of river banks
These interest also reflect the context of the national Water Act of the Netherlands
(Ministry of Transport Public Works and Water Management, 2010).
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
The Provinces
The provinces are responsible for putting into practice the WFD and the river basin
management plans. The provinces therefore see the river banks as an important
ecological corridor. The provincial authorities are also responsible for putting the
national nature policy into practice (Van Der Windt & Swart, 2007). Consequently they
are undertaking projects such as creating more room for the river so as to increase
discharge capacity of the river and making banks of the river nature friendly
(Rijkswaterstaat, 2009a). These measures in turn will also enhance the other function of
the river and river bank such as ecology and ecotourism (Reuber, 2005). Some of the
provinces like the province of Limburg, Noord-Brabant and Gelderland are working in
different localities on establishing self-eroding eco-friendly river banks (Rijkswaterstaat,
n.d.).
Water board
Local authorities such as water boards are vital in bringing into practice and overseeing
the activities pertaining eco-friendly river banks, both, within their boundaries and
within the local and regional watersheds. At the water board level the responsibilities
are as mentioned below:
Creation of nature friendly river banks (Keessen, Kempen, & Rijswick, 2010)
Act in accordance with to nature goals of provinces and WFD goals
Few examples of water boards that are working towards establishing and maintaining
the eco-friendly river banks include water board Roer en Overmaas in the province of
Limburg and Brabantse delta in the province of Brabant (Rijkswaterstaat, n.d.).
Municipalities
They have somewhat similar roles and responsibilities as that of the water boards.
However they are responsible in overseeing the proceedings of the nature friendly river
bank implementation whereas the water boards, as mentioned earlier are responsible
for implementation itself. Municipalities can also benefit from the added cultural values
and services such as aesthetics and recreation. Some examples of municipalities
involved in eco-friendly river bank project in the Meuse basin, amongst many other,
include ‘Peel en Maas' from the province of Limburg and ‘West Maas en Waal’ from the
province of Noord-Brabant (Rijkswaterstaat, n.d.).
Local residents and farmers
These stakeholders are interested in keeping the scenario as business as usual.
However, efforts have been made to involve local residents in the early decision making
stage for smoother implementation of the polices. Some suggestions on how farmers can
contribute towards nature friendly river banks have been formulated and circulated.
These outline the fundamental things that the farmers can do to cut down on the
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
nutrient loading from their farms to the river (Stam, Butler, Kretschmer, Dijkstra, &
Hofstra, 2014). Agricultural organizations such as ‘Southern Agriculture and
Horticulture Organization’ that represents thousands of farmers in south- Netherlands
Construction costs are for example strongly dependent on the amount of ground which
is needed. If ground purchases are not needed the cost for the construction of an eco-
friendly river bank are estimated at 45 euro per meter. However these cost can vary
from 20 to 160 euro’s per meter. For exact numbers of costs see Appendix 2 In some
cases the construction of new eco-friendly banks are combined with maintenance
programs for old eco-friendly river banks. This combination can also lead to a decrease
of costs (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, 2011).
Depreciation costs of an eco-friendly river bank are much lower than for a traditional
river bank. When an eco-friendly river bank is constructed and functions properly less
maintenance is required due to the fact that these banks maintain themselves by natural
processes. In the situation of the eco-friendly riverbanks in the Meuse cattle and horses
are used to maintain the eco-friendly riverbanks by grazing (Rijkswaterstaat, 2015).
This means that eco-friendly river banks could be sustainable. In practice this is not
always the case and maintenance is needed (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek
Waterbeheer, 2011).
Conclusion
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In general eco-friendly river bank projects are funded by the national government. It
could be concluded that the financial arrangements are sustainable. (Note: By financial
sustainability, we mean that there is a balance between costs (social) and benefits
derived out of the funded project on the long term). However for the longer term it is
hard to make predictions on sustainability since many eco-friendly-river banks are
recently constructed. Monitoring plans are essential to check if these eco-friendly river
banks can maintain themselves due to natural process or if artificial maintenance is
needed. Maintenance could be costly since many eco-friendly river banks have a bad
accessibility. An undesirable/unsustainable financial situation could evolve if
maintenance is needed on a frequent basis. Long term monitoring projects are needed to
check if the eco-friendly river banks along the Meuse River could sustain themselves or
whether human maintenance is needed. The maintenance cost will strongly depend on
the outcome of the monitoring programs. Since many eco-friendly river banks are
recently constructed (2010-2015) and insufficient monitoring data is available it is hard
to conclude if the financial arrangements are sustainable.
8. ENGINEERING AND MONITORING
The assessment question of this building block comprises the following:
“Are SLAs sufficiently available (implicit or explicit) in order to redesign the existing
infrastructure? Are the design and consequences of different alternatives sufficient
available? Is there sufficient monitoring of the system and are the data analysed?”(van
Rijswick et al., 2014a)
Water boards are allowed to implement rules to reduce activities which might have
negative effects on the water management of the Meuse river. The main aim of these
rules are to prevent floods and water scarcity. This rules are registered in the “Keur”
with related prohibitions and instructions. In the Keur a difference between weirs,
surface waters and groundwater has been made. The Keur from the water board “Aa en
Maas” is based on the “modelkeur” of the Union of water boards (2012) (Waterschap Aa
en Maas, 2013)
Due to the set of rules, the total Keur policy has been made with the main aim to
improve (Waterschap Aa en Maas, 2013):
Protection of weir stability; Protection of the total water management (water supply/drainage and water
level); Protection of the groundwater resources; Protections against activities which may harm surface water bodies and weirs.
Monitoring can give a good insight into the function of eco-friendly river banks. Monitoring projects facilitate checking of whether or not the goals and targets have been met. If goals are not reached yet it, changes in eco-friendly bank construction can be
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
made. During the monitoring it is important that several parameter will be checked. For example checks on ecology (according to the WFD), chemicals, physical parameters, costs, maintenance and water levels (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, 2011).
Monitoring plan
All agreements that have been made are placed in a monitoring plan. There are a few steps that are used to create a good monitoring plan (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, 2011).
Step 1: Define the information needs
Purpose of monitoring, who and when is monitoring needed? Duration of monitoring program.
Step 2 Determine measurement requirements
Reliability of the monitoring, testability of the data, workability of the data.
Methods for processing and storage of the data, frequency of the analysis.
Step 6 organization, planning and reporting
Responsible parties per step (financing included), planning of the activities, reporting.
Construction
If certain conditions are met only a notification is needed to construct an eco-friendly
river bank. If these conditions are not met it is likely a permit is needed (Waterschap Aa
en Maas, 2013). The construction of an eco-friendly river bank can also be related to
filling up or excavation of a waterway.
Maintenance
Another important goal of the Keur is to protect the ecological state of surface water
bodies and eco-friendly river banks. During the permit application, effects on ecological
states of a water body are determined as well (Waterschap Aa en Maas, 2013) .
In the water management plan of Aa en (Maas 2010-2015) all water bodies (also the
Meuse river) with a nature function (eco-friendly river banks, ecological connected
zones) are mentioned. These surface water bodies are extra protected. Some parts of the
surface waters are not registered in the provincial water plan or water management
plan. For these waters a more quantitative approach is used to reduce negative effects
on ecological values. If for example a part of a eco-friendly river bank is lost, this should
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
be compensated by the building of a new eco-friendly river bank with similar ecological
values (Waterschap Aa en Maas, 2013).
An important aim of the Keur is that it should be able to do maintenance on river banks
along surface waters. A lot of surface waters are maintained by water boards. First is
checked if proper maintenance is possible. If this is possible a maintenance permit is
given (Waterschap Aa en Maas, 2013).
Some maintenance goals are described below (Waterschap Aa en Maas, 2013):
The eco-friendly river bank should be sustainable and easy for maintenance. During construction maintenance on the water body should still be possible. In order to allow mechanical maintenance in the future the eco-friendly should
not be too steep
Conclusion
SLAs depend on the desired result, which in this case is eco-friendly Meuse river banks
and good surface water quality. Therefore in this case the SLAs are sufficiently available
and are explicit. Also the design and consequences of different alternatives sufficiently
available. However natural development of eco-friendly river banks is generally gradual
and that might affect certain SLAs. Current state of eco-friendly river banks in Meuse
river basin is in the implementation and monitoring phase. But still there is not enough
monitoring knowledge for the data to be analyzed.
9. ENFORCEMENT
The assessment question of this building block comprises the following:
“Are regulations and agreements enforceable by public and/or private parties, and are
there appropriate remedies available?” (van Rijswick et al., 2014a)
Water quality
As described before in building block 5 ‘Responsibility, Authority, Means’ the Ministry of
Infrastructure and Environment is responsible for the major rivers like the Meuse. The
responsibility for the major rivers include the riverbanks and floodplains of the river.
Rijkswaterstaat is the executing party of the ministry. The different regional
departments of Rijkswaterstaat are tasked with the enforcement, which is carried out by
the enforcement department of each regional department of Rijkswaterstaat. The
enforcement departments along with the department responsible for regulating the
permits monitor the pollution of the river, riverbanks and floodplains. They can execute
their enforcement through a set of different articles, including Art 5.16 – 5.27, 6.2, 6.3,
6.6, 6.8 and 6.9 from the Water Act. The provinces are also responsible for the quality of
the soil in some parts of the floodplains, namely the so-called ‘drogere oevergronden’
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which translates to ‘drier riverbanks’. The provinces are tasked with the enforcement on
these grounds, according to Article 6.2 section 3 of the Water Act and article 63b and 63c
of the Soil Protection Act (Wet bodembescherming).
The pollution is either from point sources or diffuse sources (Ministerie VROM &
Ministerie LNV, 2009). Eco-friendly riverbanks can be polluted by both types of sources.
Point-pollution from upstream can pollute the riverbanks downstream. Major point
polluters are wastewater treatment plants and industrial complexes. Pollution happens
either by accident, if for example an industrial wastewater treatment plant is broken and
polluted water spills into the river, or, if they don’t feel the necessity to comply with the
emission standards, the pollution is done willingly by companies. In the first case it is
usually the case of an ‘uncommon accident’ (‘ongewoon voorval’), in the latter case it
might be the case of an ‘uncommon accident’, but it could as well be a ‘regular’ discharge
with substances that are not permitted (according to the permit). In the case of an
‘uncommon accident’ art. 5.15 of the Water Act is applicable. In the other cases Art 6.2 is
applicable, or in the case of ship discharges, Art 6.3 is applicable. Point-sources can be
monitored effectively and enforcement is based on emission standards as well as
regulations written in the permit.
Diffuse pollution sources are harder to identify, since they are diffuse. Agriculture is a
notable diffuse polluter and the main polluter in the Meuse river basin (Ministerie VROM
& Ministerie LNV, 2009). In the case of eco-friendly riverbanks the diffuse pollution can
be brought in from upstream, as is the case with point pollution, or from the eco-friendly
riverbanks itself. In the latter case it is likely that an owner of a floodplain, for example a
farmer, exceeds the emission standards for the use of pesticides used as well as the
nutrient output. The effects could be that the biodiversity of the eco-friendly riverbank
decreases over time. This kind of pollution is harder to detect and to monitor. Inspectors
of the regional department of Rijkswaterstaat need a lot of knowledge of the
management area to detect and monitor changes.
Physical
The eco-friendly riverbanks can also be affected by physical changes. Either by solid
matter that is stored on the riverbanks or by excavating the riverbanks. In these
situations it is considered that these changes were not done in the process of creating an
eco-friendly riverbank or are the result of natural geomorphic processes encouraged by
the creation of the eco-friendly riverbank. In other words the changes are unwanted
since they harm the eco-friendly riverbank and the ecology related to the eco-friendly
riverbank.
These physical changes can be detected quite well by inspectors from the water, by boat,
or from the road, by car, and also from the air, by aircraft. However the inspectors need
to be familiar with the management area to detect and monitor changes. In the case
described above where some party harms the eco-friendly riverbank, the enforcement
department will start an enforcement route to make sure the delinquent will undo the
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
changes and bring the riverbank back into the desired condition. In this case the
enforcement department is able to enforce using article 6.5 of the Water Act and
subsequently article 6.12 of the Water Decree and as well article 3 of the Excavation Law
(Ontgrondingenwet).
Conclusions
The enforcers are all public parties. Especially Rijkswaterstaat has a lot of enforcement
tasks. The eco-friendly riverbanks can be harmed by pollution or in a physical way.
Pollution from point sources is in general rather easy to detect, and can thus be
enforced. Unwanted physical changes, by means of an offender, to the eco-friendly
riverbank are detected rather well, but the inspector needs to be sufficiently familiar
with the management area to detect these changes. Diffuse pollution is the hardest to
enforce, since the eco-friendly riverbanks deteriorate gradually over time. Inspectors
and enforcers need to have sufficient knowledge of the management area and sufficient
knowledge of vegetation and pesticides, nutrients and other types of diffuse pollution to
detect the changes.
10. CONFLICT PREVENTION AND RESOLUTION
The assessment question of this building block comprises the following:
“Are there sufficient conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms in place?” (van
As indicated in the 2. Values, Principles and Policy Discourses’ block, different
stakeholders have different values in moving towards an eco-friendly river bank. These
differences in the values cause a major rift between them. Furthermore, unclear
distribution of roles or overlapping responsibilities are the prominent reasons that
intensify the conflict. For instance the responsibilities and interests, as discussed earlier
in the 3. Stakeholders involvement’ block, are overlapping when it comes to
Rijkswaterstaat and local municipalities. Farmers are the most predominant type of
stakeholders, particularly in case of eco-friendly river banks in Meuse river basin as they
occupy the majority of the land along this river bank. Other stakeholders that may
oppose activity in their land are private landowners. Irrespective of these differences
and conflicts, the question that arises is that whether sufficient mechanisms are there in
place to prevent these conflicts.
In the Meuse river basin, solutions such as the stakeholder involvement in the projects,
public participation, compensation and relocation are evident in order to establish eco-
friendly river banks. The focus of public participation is on being proactive and
participatory. This implies using energy and means to find solutions instead of using
energy and means to go to the court. As discussed in the ‘4. Trade-offs between social
objectives’ block, the farmlands and land from private landowners is being bought in
Carel Dieperink
Sticky Note
you enforce a rule
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
order to create eco-friendly river banks. In return these landowners are also offered
compensations and or relocation to another place. Also mechanisms do exist to deal with
a situation where the private landowners and/or the farmers are not in terms of water
managers. The article 5.24 of the Water Act facilitates this mechanism by asking the
landowners and farmers to tolerate the changes that are being carried out in their land.
Conclusion
The increased use of public participation in the last few decades has reduced the effects
of conflicts. Stakeholders are being involved in the earlier stages of projects to be
implemented causing alleviating the differences amongst the stakeholders. Overall
sufficient means do exist to cope with the conflicts resulting from the eco-friendly bank
projects in the Meuse river basin.
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
DISCUSSION
The main goal of this paper was to evaluate the policy measures related to eco-friendly
river banks in the Meuse river basin. The research question which had to be answered in
this report is:
“Are the currently used policy methods effective and do these policy methods contribute to
sustainable management of the Meuse river?”
The 10 building block assessment method from Rijswick et al. (2014a) was used to
evaluate the current situation. The main findings will be briefly discussed below.
The assessment method results in the overlapping building blocks. This makes it hard to
allocate certain information to a certain building block. For instance 2. Values,
Principles and Policy Discourses’ block coincides with 3. Stakeholders involvement’
block. Responsibilities, which are in a way governed by the values of different
stakeholders result in overlapping information that has to be interpreted over two
different blocks. Similarly 5 Responsibility, Authority, Means’ block overlaps with 3.
Stakeholders involvement’ block because it is also deals with responsibilities of
different stakeholders. Overall the assessment method is prone to being interpreted in
various ways and depends upon individual’s ability to use the available information and
segregate it into different building blocks. However usage of this method in a team
consisting of members with different backgrounds can open up wider discussion and
help interpret the information in a better fashion and make the method more convenient
for eclectic applications.
The eco-friendly river bank project in the Meuse river basin is still in the
implementation and monitoring phase. This makes it hard to give a definite answer to
the research question of this paper. The effectively of the current policy methods can
only be determined after the projects have been completely implemented and
sufficiently monitored. Definite conclusions can only be drawn when enough monitoring
data is available for further analysis. Another point to note here is that at this point the
policy methods appear to be effective and sufficiently developed. However, it is tough to
determine how the eco-friendly river banks might turn out in the long run as it takes
time for these banks to develop naturally. And so it might turn out that the used policy
methods might turn out to be less effective than they appeared at first.
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
CONCLUSION
To answer the research question that this paper aims at, the policy measures at present
seem effective and sufficient, and combined with extensive knowledge of the water
system the eco-friendly river banks can be implemented in an effective way.
Furthermore, these measures may require a review in the future depending upon the
knowledge base generated from the monitoring and enforcement of eco-friendly river
banks.
To give an overview of the current condition of the building blocks the different building
blocks have been scored for this policy assessment. The conclusions made for the
individual building blocks resulted in the estimation of a score for the respective
building block. The scores range from 1 to 5:
5 - Perfect condition. Does not need fixing.
4 - Good condition. Needs some fixing.
3 - Average condition. Needs improvements.
2 - Below average. Needs serious improvements.
1 - Bad. Insufficient, needs major improvements.
The results of the scoring are displayed in Table 1. Brief clarifications are given per
building block, the more extensive conclusions are already discussed in each chapter
handling a building block.
Table 1 Score per building block
Building block Clarification Score
1 Water system knowledge Water system knowledge is vast, but there are some knowledge gaps, because the eco-friendly riverbank projects are relatively new.
4
2 Values, principles, discourses Most stakeholder views coincide with each other and there is sufficient knowledge of the values, principles and discourses.
4
3 Stakeholders involvement Stakeholders are involved directly or indirectly in the implementation of eco-friendly riverbanks. This is mainly due to public participation.
5
4 Trade-offs between social objectives
SLAs are based on trade-offs of costs, benefits and distributional effects. The main trade-offs are for agriculture, but there are measures to compensate this.
3
5 Responsibility, authority, means
Rijkswaterstaat has major responsibilities as well as major
3
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
authority and means. Other parties have less responsibilities, authority and means.
6 Regulations and agreements The legitimacy of regulations and agreements mainly originates from the effective definitions in the law.
3
7 Financial arrangements The most financial arrangements are governmental. Since the eco-friendly riverbank projects are not finished yet it is not known if the investments are sustainable.
2
8 Engineering and monitoring There is enough information about engineering. Monitoring is still going on, especially for the recent constructed eco-friendly riverbanks.
3
9 Enforcement The mandate to enforce is there, but the enforcement in practice might be hard, especially with regards to diffuse pollution, which is the main kind of pollution in the Meuse river area.
2
10 Conflict prevention and resolution
The use of public participation has decreased the amount of conflicts.
4
Especially the involvement of stakeholders in the implementation of eco-friendly
riverbanks scores high. This is mainly due to the public participation, which also
influences scores of other building blocks, ‘conflict prevention and resolution’ for
example. The building blocks ‘financial arrangements’ and ‘enforcement’ received low
scores. Improvement on both are needed, but this might be hard for the building block
enforcement since detection of diffuse pollution is rather hard.
There has been a few occasion where a private party was initiator of an eco-friendly
river bank project. These kind of projects indicate that the public participation is indeed
working. This might also open up options for other kinds of (financial) means,
responsibilities and authorities. Responsibilities, authority and means can thus be
arranged in such a way that private parties are more involved in construction tasks,
monitoring tasks, maintenance tasks and enforcement tasks.
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Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015
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FRONTPAGE FIGURE
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APPENDIX 1. NATURAL RIVER BANK LOCATIONS MEUSE
RIVER
Figure 2. Ecofriendly-riverbank locations Meuse River (Rijkswaterstaat, 2015).
Figure. 3. Ecofriendly-riverbank locations Meuse River (Rijkswaterstaat, 2015).
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APPENDIX 2. COST INDICATIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION
OF AN ECOFRIENDLY-RIVERBANK
Figure 4. Cost indications construction Ecofriendly-river bank (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, 2011).
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Figure 5. Cost indications construction Ecofriendly-river bank (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, 2011).
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Figure 6. Cost indications construction Ecofriendly-river bank (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, 2011).
Figure 7. Cost indications construction Ecofriendly-river bank (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, 2011).
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Figure 8. Cost indications construction Ecofriendly-river bank (Stichting Toegepast Onderzoek Waterbeheer, 2011).