Project
WAARDT (Water at the basis for Regional Adaptation)
The climate is changing. The weather is becoming more extreme: with long drought periods, more extreme showers and increasing heat problems. In this context, the natural water and soil system offers opportunities to design and manage our environment in a climate-adaptive manner, thus making it future-proof. Water and soil must then become more guiding: the current paradigm of “level follows function” must then change in the direction of “function follows level” (and function follows soil). This is a major paradigm change.
The NL2120 vision offers an inspiring approach and has attracted a lot of attention, but a translation to the regional level is needed. This is what will happen in WAArDT.
The NL2120 vision outlines that the water and soil system can guide area development at national level and how this could be done. The vision is not a blueprint, but a free scientific desk study that shows what is possible based on 5 guiding principles. It is a positive vision of how the Netherlands can deal with climate adaptation. The vision led to a lot of media attention, the impact was great. As a result, municipalities and water boards now have a need for regional 2120 studies, with the aim of opening the eyes of and inspiring administrators and policymakers.
They need a methodology that is inspired by the views shown in the NL2120 vision. NL2120 then serves as a starting point for comparable local and regional exercises. But the methodology must be radically adjusted for this: there is other, detailed regional knowledge and information, but above all there is a sensitive policy context of regional and local governments of various stripes, often also connected in politically sensitive partnerships. It is no longer a matter of a free scientific desk study, but of co-creation between science and (policy) practice.
That is why, in a co-creation approach by WUR, CAS and the Manifest Region Vallei en Veluwe, with partners from science and practice, a basic 2120 vision for Vallei en Veluwe is being drawn up, an inspiring long-term system vision.
The “fast, free approach” of NL2120 is not sufficient. A new, improved product must be created:
- A process manual to achieve a regional vision 2120 for the Vallei and Veluwe region;
- With protocols on how the detailed study for the Vallei Veluwe region can be scaled up for other regions in the Netherlands.
This allows the same methodology to be applied in other regions in the Netherlands.