Implications of climate change for landscape planning alternatives for the River Rhine floodplains

The impact of climate-induced increases of the design discharge on the river functions safety, nature, agriculture, recreation and the consequences for the preservation of culturally valuable landscapes was evaluated on the basis of three "prototype" landscaping alternatives described in the Landscape planning study for the Rhine (LPR) by Silva& Kok (1996). Each of these alternatives is based on a different "vision" on floodplain development, and involves a different approach in landscape planning. As a consequence, each alternative has different effects on the user functions, and also, a gradually increasing spatial demand to make way for the river in the case the design discharge increases in response to climate change, may have different implications for different alternatives.