In the first two modules of this course, we used the knowledge of river morphologists and river engineers to better understand what rivers want and do, and how they are impacted by engineering interventions.

In this module we focus on governance and decision making. With governance we mean the process through which decisions are taken, which includes the whole set of political, institutional and administrative rules and practices.

In the next lecture, we present the way decision making on the room for the river program has unfolded in the Netherlands. This is far from a blueprint for other rivers and countries! Every country, and river needs a specifically designed and fitting arrangement. We therefore just take you through the context and tradition in Dutch water governance, and the steps taken in decision making for the Dutch Room for Rivers case.

Our core message in this module: use the governance tradition and institutions of your own country and let time do its work.

In the video on the stakeholder context, professor Minkman explains the relation between the Room for the River programme in the Netherlands and the involved stakeholders from a historic point of view. Netherlands is a country which historically has had to deal with water management many times. Many of the boards and organizations that emerged in history are still important in contemporary flood protection.

One of the concepts that is commonly used in the stakeholder contexts is ‘governance’. Even in the video, governance systems is a widely used term, but what exactly does it encapsulate?

Professor Minkman explains the coordination and planning the Dutch case. However, other countries might have different stakeholder contexts and different coordination and planning mechanisms. In the video, she mentions an important lesson on the application to other cases.