River Contracts in Flanders
About this good practice
The central goal of this initiative is to create more space for water in municipalities and to support the implementation of natural infrastructure for water management. Through the river contracts, local governments collaborate with citizens, companies and associations in order to create (public) support, develop shared ideas and increase the involvement of stakeholders with the implementation of local actions. After the process of defining shared actions, the involved parties sign the river contract and commit to its implementation.
The Flanders Environment Agency developed the instrument in collaboration with consultancy agencies. The motive to develop this new approach was the observation that (public) support was often lacking for actions that water authorities wanted to implement. By designing an instrument that focused on a participative approach, the aim was to strengthen local (public) support for the necessary actions. The consultancy agencies developed the interactive tool for flood risk analysis (see the section on instrument implementation), gave guidance to the process to develop a river contract, and contributed to the communication.
Resources needed
A budget of between €50,000 and €100,000 is allocated for each process to create a river contract. Partners who are responsible for the implementation of an action are also responsible for the financial aspects of the contract. Total budgets per river contract can range from €500,000 to €5,000,000.
Evidence of success
Since the implementation of the instrument, a total of 7 contracts have been made and signed in the Flanders region.
Potential for learning or transfer
Rivers contracts are a good example to work together to certains goals for water related issues in a participatorive way. After an evaluation of this river contracts, the VMM (environmental Agency) has evaluated the instrument and created the ‘stroomgebiedbeheerplannen’, tot work further with the learning points of the river contracts. This can be an example on how to deal with policy instruments after an evaluation.