Journal of Environmental Planning and Management Between adaptability and the urge to control: making long-term water policies in the Netherlands Between adaptability and the urge to control: making long-term water policies in the Netherlands

Abstract

Between adaptability and the urge to control Restemeyer, Britta; van den Brink, Margaretha; Woltjer, Johannes Published in: Journal of Environmental Planning and Management Citation for published version (APA): Restemeyer, B., van den Brink, M., & Woltjer, J. (2017). Between adaptability and the urge to control: making long-term water policies in the Netherlands. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 60(5), 920-940. Triggered by recent flood catastrophes and increasing concerns about climate change, scientists as well as policy-makers increasingly call for making long-term water policies to enable a transformation towards flood resilience. A key question is how to make these long-term policies adaptive so that they are able to deal with uncertainties and changing circumstances. The paper proposes three conditions for making long-term water policies adaptive, which are then used to evaluate a new Dutch water policy approach called 'Adaptive Delta Management'. Analysing this national policy approach and its translation to the Rotterdam region reveals that Dutch policy-makers are torn between adaptability and the urge to control. Reflecting on this dilemma, the paper suggests a stronger focus on monitoring and learning to strengthen the adaptability of long-term water policies. Moreover, increasing the adaptive capacity of society also requires a stronger engagement with local stakeholders including citizens and businesses.