ConcepT

Issues aplenty for water managers: floods, droughts, salinization, water quality, soil subsidence, CO2 emissions from peatlands and a biodiversity crisis. The Netherlands prides itself with how we shaped the land in our image: polders from water, and irrigation to make every place suitable to our preferred land-use. However, nowadays we realize more and more that we are reaching the limits of our water- and ground systems (and in some cases already exceeded these). Simply said: the Netherlands as it is today, cannot be what it will be in 2050. Luckily there is a “solution” underway: a large scale transition to sustainable and robust systems. However, if you’ve seen the news the past few months, changing entire rural systems isn’t an easy task (with the nitrogen crisis just being a part of the bigger issue).

In this lunch lecture, Thijs Lieverse (a recently graduated ConcepT alumnus) will share Arcadis’ vision on how the water and soil systems in the Netherlands will dictate the future land-use. Will farmland transfer to nature? Are the peatlands near the coast salvageable? Do we need to accept floods and droughts? Using various projects and examples, he’ll discuss technical, political and societal obstacles related to the enormous transition waiting for us. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of the challenges faced by the NL, the current (political) direction taken and how water experts play the key role in combining different disciplines.

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