Dikes for eternity : an ace up our sleeve : report on the "Rivers and Land"

The system of dikes combined with the limited space for rivers, should guarantee our safety against inundation for the next hundred years, at least. But what do we do thereafter, when the sea level continues to rise, precipitation and river discharge continue to increase and the land level continues to subside? Are our dikes there for eternity? This was a good reason for the Road and Hydraulics Engineering Institute (RWS, DWW) to start an investigation into a radically different flood safety management concept, in which dikes will play a less dominant role. This investigation is aimed at creating an alternative concept of living with water and required flood safety for the large Dutch rivers, which concept can be realised over some hundred of years. An important starting point was that many people in the Netherlands must still be able to live, work and enjoy recreation in that area under comparable conditions with regard tot prosperity and welfare as they do today. The concept that was developed, now called the Rivers and Land safety concept, gives water all the space it needs, by which even the highest imaginable discharge wave in the big rivers will cause only a relatively slight increase in water level.