Living with water : towards an integral water policy

This report describes how the choice was made for a new approach to the water regime in the Netherlands which is here referred to as integral water management. Water management in the Netherlands has undergone an enormous development. In the past emphasis in policy was mainly placed on the medium of water; its use as a raw material and as a means of transport and protection against the detrimental effects of human actions. This is still of utmost importance, but there is more. Other aspects deserve attention such as planning, steering, developing new uses or in a more general sense dealing with water systems in an active and socially oriented way. This means a modernization of present water management which gives priority to the water system (including the land systems whenever groundwater forms an essential part). The approach aims at optimal coordination of the wishes of society with regard to the functions and the functioning of the water systems, by means of an integral consideration of them with the potential of the systems using a technical infrastructure and a set of legal instruments. This integral consideration will involve various policy areas: water board responsiblities as protection against floods, management of shipping routes, but also recreation and fishing.