Projectbook HWBP 2020

Every year, the Flood Protection Program (HWBP) publishes a project book describing which dike reinforcement projects have been programmed in the coming 5 years. Besides an overview of the upcoming projects, the project book also gives an inspiring reflection on its area of expertise. Flux landscape architecture has been asked to make the HWBP project book for the next three years and to shed their light on the dikes of the Netherlands. Every year, Flux will reflect on the dike improvements in relation to another current topic. The 2020 project book focuses on the dike in relation to mobility.

Dikes and mobility are inextricably linked. The dike is primarily a flood defense; a soil body of sand, clay and turf that protects the hinterland against extremely high water. At the same time almost all dikes also serve as a route for cars, bicycles, walkers, or all three. While the requirements for water safety are changing, they also change for traffic on the dike. Mobility is therefore a hot topic within every dike improvement project.

In the project book, Flux reflects in various ways on the development of mobility in relation to the dike. Based on data, field visits and interviews with experts, administrators and users, the book provides an insight into how mobility and the dike are inextricably linked from the first settlement, but that the role of mobility has strongly been changed over the years.

Netherlands, 2019, commissioned by the Flood Protection Program (HWBP), i.c.w. Koehorst in't Veld, water safety, dike reinforcement, research