Question

Which question has been addressed in this step?

Exploring risks: Can the standards for flood protection be attained under climate change? Will the sandbanks of the Wadden Sea drown as a result climate change, affecting the ecosystem and safety?

Why has this question been chosen?

• The Delta Programme has been initiated by the national government and focuses mostly on collective public action.
• Emphasis in the second year was on studying a list of possible adaptation options and harmonising knowledge across ministries and departments in more detail.

Which methods have been applied?

• The second year saw increased involvement of the central staff, encouraging co-ordination and harmonisation across sub-programs. Involvement ranges from comparison of research agendas, the development of guidance documents , the harmonisation of terminology and providing central facilities for hydrological model calculations and cost assessments. In addition, knowledge-sharing systems were tested to improve transparency and credibility of the work.

Why have these methods been selected?

• At this stage there was more focus in the guidance provided by the central staff.
• Significantly, the delta scenarios had become available, which changed the situation compared to the previous year. In the second year, the program team of the Wadden region also intensified the work on adaptation options.

What results have been obtained?

• The Wadden Region steering group commented that more attention should be paid to the social and economic consequences (also at a national level) of a failure in energy production and distribution in the northern part of the Netherlands in the case of flooding. Secondly, the flooding calculations must be rechecked, as the assessments showed different flood patterns than the region so far expected

Reflections on this step

• The pressure of the annual implementation cycle was felt even stronger than in the first year. This also influences the methods selected as more fundamental studies of system behaviour were estimated to take too long to be included in an annual reporting cycle. Interaction with the steering group of the sub-program as well as the staff of the Delta Commissioner has codetermined the pace and emphasis of the research questions