High Sandy Ground Delta Plan

The High Sandy Ground Delta Plan (DHZ) is an integral part of the Freshwater subprogramme of the Delta Programme. The region is hereby cooperating with the national government on the Freshwater Delta Resolution: a new national freshwater strategy on which a decision will be taken in 2015.

The high sandy ground in the East and the South of the Netherlands is among the driest parts of the country. There is already a water shortage during dry spells and there are problems with the quality of the water. These problems will only increase with climate change. Longer periods of drought and higher temperatures will put pressure on nature and agriculture, but also on industry, shipping, water recreation and the provision of energy and drinking water.

Until recently the focus within the High Sandy Ground Delta Plan was mainly on technical and sectoral water measures. The parties involved feel the need to take a broader and more integral view. That is why the DHZ Project Group asked Strootman to develop integral spatial concepts for the DHZ area in several design workshops with representatives of the organisations involved. Four groups worked on two subsidiary areas – Het Groene Woud and De Peel – in a two-day design workshop. The groups comprised experts from different disciplines (hydrology, ecology, agriculture, etc.), and from parties involved in the DHZ, as well as from outside organisations.

Strootman elaborated the outcomes of the workshops in the form of eight spatial principles to ensure that the promising freshwater strategies are intelligent, efficient and effective, appropriate to the area, and have an added value for the quality of the landscape. These principles are: reinforce the influence and visibility of the abiotic subsoil; reinforce the naturalness of systems and enhance the natural values; link networks; heighten contrasts; complete cycles; stack functions; abolish the distinction between town and countryside; and be creative with hydrological solutions. These principles are an aid and source of inspiration for people who have to deal with similar problems.

This project shows that a multidisciplinary, supra-organisational design approach is essential to come up with customised responses in the form of integral and sustainable solutions for the freshwater issues in the High Sandy Ground.