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 Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Assessment Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 5 Assessment ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Water System Knowledge (rijkswaterstaat, 2014) ................................................................... 6 2. Values, Principles and Policy Discourses ...................................................................................... 8 3. Stakeholders involvement .................................................................................................................. 9 4. Trade-offs between social objectives .......................................................................................... 12 5 Responsibility, Authority, Means ................................................................................................... 13 6. Regulations and Agreements .......................................................................................................... 14 7. Financial Arrangements ................................................................................................................... 16 8. Engineering and Monitoring ........................................................................................................... 18 9. Enforcement .......................................................................................................................................... 20 10. Conflict Prevention and Resolution ........................................................................................... 22 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................................ 24 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 25 References ....................................................................................................................................................... 27 Appendix 1. Natural river bank locations Meuse River ................................................................. 30 Appendix 2. Cost indications for the construction of an Ecofriendly-riverbank ................. 31 2 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. 3 Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015 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?” 4 Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015 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) 5 Water Policy, Governance and Law (GEO4-6002), 2014-2015 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