Room for river measures and public visions in the Netherlands: A survey on river perceptions among riverside residents

Abstract

Dutch river management is moving from traditional dike reinforcements toward "room for river" measures to assure flood protection and to serve other societal goals. With that, the engineering paradigm shifts from mastership over nature to a more partnership-like attitude toward nature. Are these values shared by Dutch riverside residents? Are the measures proposed under the new paradigm accepted? This paper investigates these two questions on the basis of semistructured interviews and a survey in communities along the floodplain of the river Waal (i.e., Rhine). The analyses show that even though their visions of nature are remarkably ecocentric, partnership with nature is not the dominant idea within that ecocentric realm. Partly as a consequence of that and partly because the respondents do not perceive the measures as natural, the investigated room for river measures are not endorsed. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.