Territorial water management strategies in the context of climate change

Over the past decade, Europe has been experiencing more extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves causing signficant damages and loss.

As these events are becoming more frequent and intense, it is important for regions in Europe to try to adapt and increase their resilience.

In July 2021 east Belgium was particulary impacted by severe floods. It is in this context, that the three Belgian regions decided to adress the issue of “Urbanisation strategies for transregional or transnational valleys facing climate change” and to launch a joint pilot action. The Belgian pilot action focuses on territorial water management, particularly addressing the risks of flooding, drought and water shortages and examines two types of strategies: proactive strategies aimed at anticipating and preventing disasters such as large-scale flooding, major droughts and/or water shortages, and reactive strategies focused on crisis management mechanisms.

Rationale & link to Territorial Agenda

The Belgian pilot action directly contributes to the two overarching objectives of the Territorial Agenda 2030, namely a Just Europe and a Green Europe. It addresses more precisely the following priorities :

• “Balanced Europe” notably by encouraging decision makers at all governance levels to unleash the unique potential of territories with specific geographies and adequately addressing the constraints of these areas through integrated and cooperative approaches.
• “Functional Regions” especially since territorial water management often cross multiple administrative borders, which represent opportunities to strenghten  cooperation on long-term place-based strategies between local and regional decision makers as well as to adress sustainable functional links between neighbouring areas.
• “Integration beyond borders” by trying to create stable cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation in macro-regional, national, regional and local development strategies and by supporting as well the development of innovative tools and the promotion of co‑development, involving citizens across borders.
• “Healthy environment” by developing new crisis management tools and preventive measures to increase the safety and resilience of places impacted by climate change.

Activities / Events

Phase 1 : intra-Belgian preparatory discussions

The three Belgian regions defined the purpose and the scope of the pilot action during two seminars on 30 March and 20 June 2023.

Discussions were based on two case studies:

• The Woluwe Valley: the Brussels-Capital Region and the Flemish Region focused on water usage and retention to prevent flooding, drought, and water scarcity.
• The Vesdre Valley: the work of the Walloon Region focused on adaptation actions to rebuild the valley after the devastating floods of July 2021.

Three fundamental dimensions and associated questions emerged from those discussions. They can be summarised as in the diagram below:

Phase 2 : webinars open to European partners

Belgium and neighbouring countries identified major issues of territorial water management during two international webinars based on case studies and discussions structured around the three dimensions identified during phase 1 (governance, territories and instruments).

The first webinar on 11 September 2023 aimed to exchange experiences.  Several case studies from Wallonia, Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium as well as from the European metropolis of Lille in France were presented.

The PowerPoint presentations of those cases studies are available below:

• The “Multidisciplinary strategic scheme for the Vesdre watershed” (also referred as “Vesdre scheme”), Wallonia, Belgium.
• The “Sustainable neighbourhood (re)development programmes”, Wallonia, Belgium.
• The “Dry Delta”, Flanders, Belgium.
• The “Leve(n)de Woluwe”, Flanders, Belgium.
• The “Water-Land-Schap”, Flanders, Belgium.
• The “Woluwe Terre d’eau” (land of water) (study, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium.
• The “Guardiennes de l’eau” (water guardians) project, Lille European Metropolis, France.

During the second webinar on 12 October 2023, two round tables were organised to discuss two of the three dimensions based on concrete examples from the case studies. The first roundtable focused on governance mechanisms, while the second addressed urban and spatial planning instruments. During this webinar, an additional case study was introduced as an example to help answer questions. This case study is about  : “The Delta programme”, the Netherlands.

Phase 3: interviews with partners to deepen key elements

At the beginning of 2024, several interviews took place to further develop key elements of the case studies presented and/or referred to in phase 2.

Key result : final report

A “Note of good practices in territorial water management” was drafted based on the intra-Belgian exchanges (phase 1), international webinars (phase 2), and individual interviews (phase 3).

This Note of good practices mainly contains:

• 9 case studies (see below a summary table of the case studies).
• An in-depth analysis of the three dimensions (governance, instruments, and territories) separately and their interconnections.
• An overview of good practices (see the “Main lessons” below).

Cases studies

Main lessons

The Belgian pilot action allowed to identify good practices in territorial water management. These good practices can be summarized as follows:

• Including quantitative and qualitative water management strategies in an integrated territorial strategy ensures better coherence  between  instruments and promotes win-win projects.
• An integrated vision of territorial development helps to align sectoral policies (including water management) and local actions. Such a vision also encourages citizens to support the objectives, planned actions and the search of win-win solutions.
• Involving citizens in local diagnostics ensures better-tailored responses to local conditions. As well as consultation and co-creation mechanisms at all stages of the planning processes (from the diagnosis until the identification of measures) ensure that measures are well-adapted to local needs.
• Mapping water stakeholders is a prerequisite for effective cooperation given the multiplicity of actors involved and is even more critical when actors are located on both sides of a regional or national border.
• Integrate easily and quickly achievable actions into territorial water strategies makes it possible to maintain the support of citizens and local authorities for the overall strategy envisaged.
• Communicating succesful actions boosts the support of local authorities and citizens and facilites the implementation of all actions planned as part of the water management strategies.
• Dedicated structures for implementing and monitoring water management actions are crucial to ensure their effective execution.
• Coordination of water stakeholders via a dedicated structure is also essential, especially since there is an increase of actors and small projects.
• It is essential to provide local authorities with technical and logistical support so that they have the expertise, data, guidelines and resources necessary to develop their strategies and actions.
• Innovation hubs in local areas encourage the emergence of new techniques and solutions as well as their quick implementation.
• Information exchange between local authorities and citizens raises awareness of the interdependences of territories and ultimately the need for territorial solidarity.
• Developing a “culture of risk” through information and dialogue raises awareness regarding vulnerabilities and  encourages local authorities and citizens to increase their responsibility by adopting preventive and crisis management measures.
• “Stress tests” to identify vulnerabilities allow to consider measures to limit them as well as encourage collaborative solutions for municipalities facing the same types of risks.
• Innovative operations in test territories notably help to demonstrate their added value and encourage their wider application.
• The establishement of evaluation mechanisms helps to strenghten stakeholders support for the strategies implemented.

Lead stakeholders

The three Belgian regions and more precisely :

• SPW Territoire – Public Service of Wallonia
• Department Omgeving
• brussels

Supported by The Destrée Institute from Wallonia.

Partners

Belgium: environment.brussels, Regionaal Landschap Brabantse Kouters, Vlaamse Land Maatschappij (VLM) Regio West, LABO RUIMTE, CORTEX Public Service of Wallonia, University of Liège (Uliège), Research Centre on Territorial, Urban and Rural Sciences at the University of Liège (LEPUR-ULiège), the German-Speaking Community of Belgium, Territorial Action Research & Study Centre at the University of Louvain (CREAT-UCLouvain)

France: Lille European Metropolis (MEL), the Transfrontier Operational Mission (MOT)

The Netherlands: Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management

© Photo “View of a damaged street in Pepinster, Vesdre Valley” by European Commission –Audiovisual Service