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Living by the Water

A harmonious perspective in the relationship between


nature and the Dutch urban development

Faculty of Spatial Sciences


Urban Planning, Design and Society
Spatial problems and Spatial Polices: The Dutch Experience
Prof. Dr. P.J.M. van Steen
Bruno Oliveira Musso/ University of So Paulo
S3020576
Groningen, 2015

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Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 3
2. The historical relationship between water and the Dutch society ......................................... 4
3. The first complication: the climate changes .......................................................................... 7
3. A second complication: the Dutch cities keep growing ...................................................... 10
4. VINEX: a new approach to live by the water ..................................................................... 13
5. Living by the water: finding solutions ................................................................................. 15
6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 17
7. References ........................................................................................................................... 18

Figure 1: Occupation by the water over the centuries, from the lecture of Meijles, 2015 ............ 4
Figure 2:Hegebeintum, the largest remaining 'terp' in the Netherlands,2015 ............................... 5
Figure 3: Dike between the sea rise and the villages of Paesens and Moddergat,2015 ................ 5
Figure 4:The closing dam of the Zuider Sea,2015 ........................................................................ 5
Figure 5:Arctic sea ice extent over the last decades, in ROGGEMA,2009 .................................. 7
Figure 6:Decadal Surface Temperature Anomalies (oC), in ZUIDEMA,2015 ............................. 8
Figure 7: A measure of regional storm activity, the withe band indicates normal conditions, in
TRENBERTH,2005 ...................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 8:European Mega Regions, acoording to Florida, 2007, The Netherlands are completely
merged in one of these urban elements ....................................................................................... 10
Figure 9:Dutch population projection, in Trias,2015 .................................................................. 11
Figure 10: Population density in Europe, in Trias,2015.............................................................. 11
Figure 11: Delta works dams, in STEEN,2015 .............................................................................. 13
Figure 12: The VINEX District of IJburg,Amsterdam, 2015 .......................................................... 14

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1. Introduction
This paper is the conclusion of the Spatial Problems and Spatial Polices; The Dutch
Experience course, offered by the International Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of
Groningen.

As this course showed to its students how broad is the spatial planning culture in The
Netherlands, affecting as many geographical and social issues as possible. And as proposal to this
paper, it is asked to choose some topic about the Dutch spatial planning that have most interested
the student.

The issue to be researched will be the relationship between a growing Dutch population
and the always-increasing water levels in this land. The Dutch society is well known by their
effort to control water levels changing by the construction of dams and land reclamation,
strategies that turned this land a bellow the sea level country.

However it will be seen that it is not possible stay following this centenary path, that it is
time to change the way to manage the Dutch water problems, or suffer a future when the conflict
will just increase.

The Dutch spatial planning already accept a new reality, and it is already being implanted
in the urban development. Maybe will be from this tiny country in west Europe that the whole
world will learn how live by the water in the 21th century.

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2. The historical relationship between water and the Dutch society
It is well known the complex geographic condition of The Netherlands in the earth surface:
55% of its territory is below sea level and, according to IPCC 4 th assessment report, 2007, it is
where 60% of this population lives and 65% of its Gross National Product is produced (MEIJLES,
2015). It is not a causality that the literal The Netherlands in English is The Low Countries.

The truth is that the nature would follow its intention to turn the delta of many European
rivers, as the Rhine, in part of the ocean. In fact, this process of sea level rise began in the end of
the last Ice Age when the North Sea was still dry land. This process practically shaped the Dutch
coast as we know, until it became slower and more erratic. The human activity just accelerated
the process, manly because the extract of peat as combustive, what increased lakes dimensions;
and covered salt, affecting the coastal areas. (KNAG, 2001) .

Figure 1: Occupation by the water over the centuries, from the lecture of Meijles, 2015

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Affected by the periodical floods in them
territory, the habitants began to rise the first dikes
already 2000 years ago, when the sea level was still 1,5
m lower them today. It was the begin of the War on
Water, a war that the Dutch society loosed most part
of the battles for around 1600 year, consequence of the
lack of offensive solutions against the seas level rises
and river floods; as the construction of dikes, dams and
Figure 2:Hegebeintum, the largest
terps1 and the followed reinforcement, repair and
remaining 'terp' in the Netherlands,2015
reconstruction of these structures, damaged by floods
and storms. (STEEN, 2015)

The development of new technologies


permitted in the 16th century a radical changing in
the Dutchmens approach in the floods management,
that become much more offensive: it was the
beginning of the land reclamation era in The
Netherlands. More than fighting against the waters
rise, now the Dutchmen a were taking back what was
one time them land, and even advancing against the
Figure 3: Dike between the sea rise and water thanks the water-pumping windmill.
the villages of Paesens and
Moddergat,2015 (HOEKSEMA, 2007)

The use of the technology stayed as the main


weapon against the water until the end of the 20th
century, reaching important projects to The
Netherlands as the Zuyder Sea Works, as the huge land
reclamation proposed by Cornelis Lely in the end of
the 19th century that included the creation of a fresh Figure 4:The closing dam of the Zuider
Sea,2015

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Man made hills in order to keep feet dry (STEEN, 2015)

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water reserve where before was salt sea, and the creation a whole new province in the country:
Flevoland. (STEEN, 2015)

However, the 21th century showed a new scenario to the Dutch society and the world, with
problems that, as we will see below, cannot be solved just with infrastructure and technology. It
will be explained that the end of the war on water needed to be over, because the consequences
of this fight may be so drastic that turned completely inviable to stay on it. Arrived a moment that
the best solution may will be give some ruimte voor water (space for water) (STEEN, 2015)

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3. The first complication: the climate changes
It is difficult to deny that human activity could be responsible to the recent changes in
climate patterns all over the world. Climate changes are becoming evident, accelerating sooner,
faster and stronger than the expected, as the temperature continues to increase for 150 years
(ROGGEMA, 2009), the same period that our society pas for this endless industrial revolution.

There are many evidences of this changes as the melt of sea ice in Artic Ocean 30 year
more quickly than the expected and the increasing of the growth rate of CO2 world emissions
from 1.1% per year in the last 20th century decade to 3.3% per year in the first four years of this
new century. (ROGGEMA, 2009)

Figure 5:Arctic sea ice extent over the last decades, in ROGGEMA,2009

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Many are the effects of these changes in our planets patterns as the rise of the average
temperature in earths surface, unexpected changes in precipitation patterns and more frequently
tropical storms and hurricanes reaching human settlements.

Figure 6:Decadal Surface Temperature Anomalies (oC), in


ZUIDEMA,2015

Figure 7: A measure of regional storm activity, the withe band indicates normal conditions, in
TRENBERTH,2005

However, the main concern for the Netherlands are for sure the rise of the seas levels, as it
was always a Dutch concern. It is because the expectation of continuous rising in the North Sea
level that it is logical belief in the non-sense in stay fighting against the water advance in Dutch

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territory. Would be reasonable for example planning the new Netherlands expecting that some
moment we will need to share space with the water, even for unknown period.

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3. A second complication: the Dutch cities keep growing
It is know that most part of the worlds population is already living in cities, and the forecast
is that this rate will just increase in the next decades: the migration to the cities is unabated and
until the half of this century 70 per cent of the mankind will live in cities. (OLTHUIS &
KEUNING, 2010)

As is explained by Florida,2007; the mega urban regions are not going to reduce in size,
and as is demonstrated in this same paper, the whole Dutch territory belongs to one of this
megalopolis.

Figure 8:European Mega Regions, acoording to Florida, 2007, The Netherlands are completely
merged in one of these urban elements

The Dutch population grown continually since the end of the 19th century, reaching the
actual 16.7 million inhabitants. Moreover, it will still grow with the migration rates and the life
expectancy at birth in the country, reaching one million new inhabitants until 2060 or even more,
as there are forecasting of 19 million people living in this country until this end of this century
first half. (TRIAS-LLIMS, 2015)

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It could not look a problem for everyone, as this is not a huge population compared with
the huge world metropolis; So Paulo Metropolitan Area has already more than 20 million
inhabitants1 for example, and it is the seventh large city in the world.

Figure 9:Dutch population projection, in Trias,2015

However, it is remarkable the Dutch population density, 380 inhabitants per km2 on the
average, reaching approximately 6.500 inhabitants in its government seat, The Hague (for the
comparison, it is more than 2.5 times high than in So Paulo2). These rates puts The Netherlands
between the ten most densely populated countries in the world (BEETS & NIMWGEN, 2000)

Figure 10: Population density in Europe, in Trias,2015

Therefore, remembering that the Dutch population for centuries are disputing land against
the Mother Nature, it would to be expected that this demographic scenario would just increase the

1
According to Seade,2014
2
According to Seade,2014

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need of this people for a place to live, even so, when it is accepted that the Dutchmen fight a battle
that they cannot win.

Maybe the traditional solutions for this problem: dams, dikes, water pumping and land
reclamation; are too slow to cities that are growing to quickly (the city of Almere, in Randstad
Holland, for example, is the fastest growing European city). Therefore, how are the ways that the
Dutch are following to conciliate the land demand and the nature pressure, guaranteeing safety to
their people and the minimum impact to the environment? This is what is going to be discussed
in the next topics.

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4. VINEX: a new approach to live by the water

It was before the end of the 20th century that the


Dutch authorities notice that the conflict between water and
people was not just a technical issue. Even after a series of
huge engineering projects that promised the Netherlands
eternal security, as the remarkable Delta Plan, a series of
dikes constructed and reinforced in the Rhine and Meuse
rivers deltas, completed by the 80s; the fear of more
disasters continued to haunt the Dutch society. The country
was surprised for example by a whole evacuation plan in Figure 11: Delta works dams, in STEEN,2015
January 1995 that took almost one quarter million people
from their houses. (ROTH & WARNER, 2007) (STEEN, 2015)

It was clear that just keeping the water away the cities was irrational and a huge expend of
public money as the Dutch society as trapped in a looping: how long the safety created by dikes
was increased, increased also would be the land occupation, which means more loss of lives and
money in a possible tragedy. With a high risk, comes more investments in safety and the cycle
restarts. (STEEN, 2015).

As we can notice, the discussion is now beyond technical affairs. Moreover, it was in this
path that the water management begin to involve professionals from social and environmental
areas. At this time also that the urban planners where included in the water management decisions,
accepting the water as a land use category and proposing ways to include definitely the water as
part of the urban-scape, showing inclusively the advantages of living by the water. As describes
van Steen in his lectures: it is the marriage of Ms. Water and Mr. Spatial Planning. (STEEN,
2015).

There are many children from this marriage, public policies that began to integrate the
water harmonically in the Dutch growing cities. The remarkable one, by including the water as
an element of a housing settlement, is the VINEX document.

The Fourth Report on Spatial Planning Extra, aka. VINEX, is a national collection of urban
planning policies adopted in 1993 by the Dutch Government; follows two aspects: the desire to
achieve equal opportunities for all citizens in Netherlands and the combat of overconcentration in
urban centers. (BOEIJENGA & MENSINK, 2008)

This report resulted in this series of polices that spread residential neighborhoods and
businesses centers throughout the country and creates new centers of urban growth.

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(BOEIJENGA & MENSINK, 2008). In conclusion, it is of the government the competence to
decide where and how much it could and could not be build.

Consequently, housing development sites under these polices began to be known as Vinex
Districts. (BOEIJENGA & MENSINK,
2008).

About the water question, the


discussion behind the Vine admitted that
increasing urbanization is putting more and
more pressure on water management.
Therefore, the document brings as response
many solutions for natural water levels
variations, as sunken green strips, that

Figure 12: The VINEX District of IJburg,Amsterdam, 2015 flood during heavy rainfall, protecting the
residential settlements. (BOEIJENGA &
MENSINK, 2008)

It also includes the water as a land use category, expecting at last 10% of the districts
surface covered by water, policy that guarantees an open space in the district easier and cheaper
to manage than parks, for example. (BOEIJENGA & MENSINK, 2008)

After this moment, a series of polices were included in the spatial planning and water
management system, now the same subject, as the following:

the Room for the River program, polemic plan introduced in 2000 that created
the calamity polders areas, that flood in cases of extreme necessity;
the National Water Government Agreement in 2003, that defines the competences
of which governmental level to the water management;
the Spatial Planning Memorandum in 2005, that consolidate the integration
between spatial planning and water management;
And the Working together with water in 2008, the first one to be concerned about
global warming effects.

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5. Living by the water: finding solutions
Fortunately, the Dutch culture is used with the idea of living near water bodies, or even
inside them. Since the 17th century, it was common to see boathouses over Amsterdam canals,
normally the home of retired merchants that preferred stay in their own ships instead of begin to
leave on land. Since than floating settlements have been a housing solution in The Netherlands in
many contexts, as for example a practical option to water related workers and to low income and
even to find a use to old ships after wars (MUTIA, 2012)

Even so, it is a nowadays trend the focus of architects in housing typologies protected
against water level variations. It began to be more evident after episodes of natural disasters of
worldwide commotion, as the hurricane Katrina in North America. This beginning of century
belongs to a climate change generation in architecture, responsible to design the modern
concept of living by the water, with safety, quality and aware about sustainability concerns.
(OLTHUIS & KEUNING, 2010)

Figure 13: Float house, prototype for prefabricated affordable housing designed as a solution to New Orleans,
reached by hurricane Katrina in 2005 (Morphosis, 2009)

For some architects, develop typologies of floating settlements will contribute to a


revolution in the way of living and constructing our cities. It is a promise of a city more dynamic,
more flexible, the ultimate form of flexibility according to Olthuis and Keuning. Through this
solution, it is possible break the secular connection between building and place. The flooding
building permits the adaptation too many functions, owners and, of course, to new places thought
different times (OLTHUIS & KEUNING, 2010)

Therefore, although all the factors that made the Dutch planning institutions decide to
accept the integration between water and housing as major development policy, it seems that it
will not be a problem to adapted the way to think the cities as there is already a whole generation
of professionals interested in put in practice this solutions. Under this context, maybe The

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Netherlands is being a real live laboratory, where the world will knew how to the same adaptation
in water direction.

It is the case of the neighborhood of Ijburg, built in artificial islands as the implantation of
a VINEX district in Amsterdam, in 1996. Olthuis that worked in this project explain us that it
is not a correct solution fight against the rise of the water level; on the contrary, we need to live
with the nature and the water. (Built it Bigger: Ijburg expansion, Amsterdam, 2011; STEEN,
2015). And it is this that they do in Ijburg, as a residential and mix-used neighborhood where
today can be found many typologies of residences and studios directed linked to the water body,
dozens of them completely floating houses. The flexibility of sizes, shapes and typologies is
remarkable, as gives opportunity to people of different incomes, interests and routines to live
mixed in this floating neighborhood. It is important to observe it because, as explains Kauko,
people need to see water based housing as affordable, comfortable and save than in land to accept
it in the housing market. (KAUKO, 2012). Giving the people opportunity to choose how they
want to live may be the way to a quickly inclusion of this typologies.

Figure 14: The many typologies of floating houses in


Ijburg permitis a mixed demand for this neighbouhood,
in archdaily.com, 2015

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6. Conclusion
Space is for centuries, and may still be for the expected future, a major issue to The
Netherlands development. The next decades will be marked to the increase of the pressure over
people and land, as one still growing and becoming denser in urban centers; and as the other will
be more frequently claimed by the seas and rivers, expected to rise their levels as consequence of
the climate changes forecasted by the scientific community around the globe.

The theory of accepting the water as part of the urban issue was already incorporated in
many Dutch planning policies, as the Fourth Report on Spatial Planning, a.k.a. VINEX, that
establishes guidelines to urban expansion in this country.

And it not seems that this new view of expansion will have problems to be implanted, as
there are already a whole generation of professionals interested in design the live by the water
as a solution to a more sustainable way of building and a promise of a more dynamics flexible
city.

It is not more a surprise to people from the Netherlands this the water based housing, as in
some decades of VINEX many neighborhoods where created in its patterns, the Ijboug in
Amsterdam, for example. However it may still be a taboo to other countries because lack of
technology or just cultural rejection.

Developing cities in harmony with water bodies is a problem to all the societies, and our
rivers and seas suffers with the pollution and spatial pressure of the human agglomeration.
Considering that populations increasing and climate changes are not restricted to the Low
Countries, architects and planners from the whole world should see the Dutch experience as
solution to these same problems.

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7. Referencies

BEETS, G. & NIMWGEN, N. v., 2000. Population Issues in the Netherlands. Review of
Population and Social Policy, Volume 9, pp. 87-117.
BOEIJENGA, J. & MENSINK, J., 2008. Vinez Atlas. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.
Built it Bigger: Ijburg expansion, Amsterdam. 2011. [Filme] Direo: D FOSTER. The
Netherlands: Discovery Channel.
FLORIDA, R., GULDEN, T. & MELLANDER, C., 2007. The Rise of the Mega-Region, s.l.:
The Martin Prosperity Institute.
HOEKSEMA, 2007. Three stages in the history of land reclamtion in the Netherlands,
Michigan: Calvin College Engineering Department.
KAUKO, T., 2012. Sustainable Development of t he Built Environment: The Role of
Residential/Housing Sector, Trondheim: Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
KNAG, R. D. G. S., 2001. Struggle Against Floods. Em: Compact Geography of The
Netherlands. s.l.:KNAG, pp. 7-29.
MEIJLES, E., 2015. Shaping the Dutch landscape: Physical geography of the Netherlands,
lecture delivered in 14th Sept. Groningen: University of Groningen.
Morphosis, 2009. Morphopedia.com. [Online]
Available at: http://morphopedia.com/projects
[Acesso em 18 Oct 2015].
MUTIA, I., 2012. Old tradition with new approach: Water-Based dwellings in The Netherlands,
Groningen: University of Groningen.
OLTHUIS, K. & KEUNING, D., 2010. FLOAT: Building on water to combat urban congestion
and climate change. Amsterdam: Frame Publishers.
Portal, S. o. S. P. E., 2014. [Online]
Available at: http://www.seade.gov.br/
[Acesso em 26 Octuber 2015].
ROGGEMA, R., 2009. Adaptation to Climate Change: A Spatial Challenge. s.l.:Springer
Netherlands.

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ROTH, D. & WARNER, J., 2007. Flood risk, uncertainty and changing river protection policy
in the Netherlands: the case of 'Calamity Polders', Wageningen: Wageningen University and
Resarch Centre.
STEEN, P. v., 2015. Water Managment at work: Past, Present and Future of the "War on
Water", lecture dlivered on 1st Oct. Groningen: University of Groningen.
TRENBERTH, K., 2005. Uncertaunty in Hurricanes and Global Warming. Science AAAS,
Volume 308.
TRIAS-LLIMS, S., 2015. Population Dynamics in The Netherlands, lecture delivered in Sep
11th. Groningen: University of Groningen.
ZUIDEMA, C., 2015. Energy, environment and Spatial Planning, lecture delivered in Oct 15.
Groningen: University of Groningen.

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