Implementation process

Point of departure of FRM strategies

Desired score to reach per layer in the pilot (Baseline monitor, 2017)

Stakeholders involved

• Province of Zeeland
• Rijkswaterstaat
• Waterboard Scheldestromen
• Municipality of Reimerswaal
• Veiligheidsregio Zeeland (Safety region Zeeland)
• HZ University of Applied Sciences
• Owners critical infrastructure (gas, water, railway:Prorail, highway, electricity: Enduris, communication)

Role of key actors

The Ministry of Environment and Waterboard are responsible for the first layer ( L1). The Safety region has evacuation plans (layer 3), but this layer is also the of the Rijkswaterstaat, because they have to protect the highway while Prorail has to protect the railways. The Province is responsible for the second layer (L2) when possible (interview with pilot manager, 2019).

The role of the Province of Zeeland, the pilot manager, is to give policy advise on the topic to the Regional and National Government. The role of the vital infrastructure owners is to provide information about the functionality and location of the assets. The Safety region is the expert on water safety in the Netherlands and hence a very important actor because they provided a knowledge, experience and a large network of relevant actors in the water safety sector for the entire country (interview with pilot manager, 2019).

Main activities

The main activities/steps carried out towards improved FRM strategies, the tools applied and the actors involved are the followings:

1. Get acknowledged with the area (description of the area, stakeholders analysis). The Province contacted all vital infrastructure owners to discuss the problems and the possible solutions. Once the problem was clear, the rest of stakeholders were involved (vital infrastructure owners, Regional Government, knowledge institutes, Reimerswaal municipality, Safety Region, water board and ministry of infrastructure). It was hard to get involved stakeholders from private companies, such as Prorail. Vital infrastructure owners and the Safety Region are the most important actors of the project. The actors were met individually, in small groups at a round table discussion, or large groups in workshops. Meetings combined with other projects (such as HZ RAAK project).
2. Get the geodata of the electricity grid assets. The Province of Zeeland contacted (via phone, emails, meetings) the vital infrastructure owners to discuss about the flood risks and reach an agreement to keep this data confidential providing only a code number.
3. Vulnerability analysis. The vulnerability analysis of adaptive critical infrastructure (roads, rail, electricity) and the cascading effects use done by Witteveen + Bos (on behalf of Province Zeeland) in collaboration with the HZ RAAK project. They did flood simulations of 30 asset points using GIS models and the location of vital infrastructure. Vitale Assets tool (HZ) was applied to analyse impact of flood scenarios on critical infrastructure and the Circle tool (Deltares) to identify the cascade-effects.
4. Proposed spatial measures (to be completed based on report). Witteveen + Bos and Ecorys are conducting a cost-benefit analysis of potential spatial measures. The costs of the spatial measures proposed for L2 (build an inner dyke to prevent highway and railway from flooding) may be more expensive (about 45 million $) than measures in L1. Moreover, they may require long time implementation.

Referenties

• Baseline MONITORING SURVEY FRAMES – Baseline measurement – Pilot: Zeeland - Reimerswaal, Akkermans, R. and I. de Kubber, Province of Zeeland, 9 januari 2019.
• Transnational Monitor and Evaluation report FRAMES, FRAMES, FRAMES, 8 juni 2020.