Napoleon, Willem I was made sovereign and a centralized state undermined the authority of local provinces. Under Willem’s rule, the Rijkswaterstaat received great authority with large budgets and projects in the early 19th century. The main accomplishment of the Rijkswaterstaat was to pool financial resources and local expertise into one central location to draw on best practices. Also, the Rijkswaterstaat instituted a communication system along the waterways in the Netherlands to warn other regions about changing water levels and other complications in water management. After Willem I abdicated in 1840, the Rijkswaterstaat lost its authority for almost two decades. As the relationship between local, state, and national legislation became more coordinated, the Rijkswaterstaat was able to re-establish its importance in water management. As a liberal belief of public works again took hold in the Netherlands, the expenditures on infrastructure doubled in twenty
years. The water boards remained an important actor in managing local dikes and canals. After the flood of 1953, the authority of the water boards was severely diminished by the breach of these locally administered dikes. The number of water boards drastically dropped from over two thousand seven hundred water boards to under sixty. The more centralized water boards were now responsible for drinking and sewage water. The Rijkswaterstaat oversaw the implementation of the DeltaWorks program; one of the great engineering feats of the modern era. As political will changed, the engineers at Rijkswaterstaat and the water boards came under political fire for being insensitive to environmental biodiversity and natural contours of the land. By the 1990s, environmentalists, academics, and activists had flooded into the Rijkswaterstaat. This new blood looked a new approaches to water management that were more in line with environmental concerns. This thought has carried over into the
new phase of planning, which can be summarized in the “Room for the River” plan. “Room for the River” is the Dutch response to rising sea level and more intense rainfall. Room for the River: The Dutch Approach We were able to hear a presentation about “Room for the River” from Royal Haskoning DHV, the oldest Dutch consulting firm. “Room for the River” is in its earliest implementation phase. By 2015, there are $3 billion worth of projects expected to be carried out in the Netherlands to help manage flooding in areas with a heavy concentration of population. Four million people live in areas that are prone to flooding in the Netherlands. Room for the River is being carried out by engineering processes that: (1) excavate low flooding areas so there is more room to flood (2) deepen the bed of the rivers to allow more flooding (3) use temporary water storage areas
Dikes can be found throughout the Netherlands, a legacy of the nation’s efforts to manage the sea.
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