An Integrated Approach to Flood Risk Management Management and Spatial Quality Enhancement for a Netherlands’ River Polder Area

In the previous paper, the aspect of including interventions from different flood risk safety layers is explained quite concisely. In this publication, an extended approach for the inclusion of interventions from different flood risk layers are described in more detail. The paper demonstrates how the Netherlands’ policy shift from a probability-based flood risk target to a risk-based flood risk target increased the range of interchangeable measures for flood risk protection. Though applying a risk-based mindset, the Netherlands’ flood risk reduction targets were, until recently, defined as probability-based safety standards. This resulted in a uniform dike-ring approach in which different dike-rings have different safety standards, based on, amongst others, the perceived economic value of the area, which are applied uniformly to the whole dike-ring. Within this probability reduction based system it is possible to define interchangeable flood risk management interventions at different locations, for instance, by proposing interventions of different scales, as demonstrated in the previous publication. The ‘Room for the River’ project is an example of providing alternative probability reduction measures, since both dike elevation and load reduction reduce the probability of a flood. However, applying risk-based flood risk targets conceptually considerably extends the amount of interchangeable flood risk measures. Not only does it, next to probability reduction measures, allow for the inclusion of consequence reduction measures (such as flood proofing buildings, elevating areas, and improving evacuation), but compared to the uniform dike-ring approach, it also allows for differentiations in probability standards per dike segment. This conceptually more fine-meshed perspective of the dike-ring extends the amount of variable locations for flood risk management interventions. In the research-by-design study described in this paper, the examined method for the aspect of ‘changing the layer of the flood risk intervention’ is applied to the Albasserwaard case study area. The paper demonstrates how the Netherlands’ recent shift from a probability standard target towards a risk-based target, by increasing the amount of interchangeable flood risk management interventions for the case study area, strengthens the possibility of deploying the developed method and the use of spatial quality as an ex-ante criterion

Introduction:Urban-Rural Differences in Historical Demography

Systematic research on urban-rural variation in demographic behavior is necessary to overcome dichotomous views resulting from studying cities and the countryside separately. After all, a web of interactions facilitating the diffusion of ideas and behavior connects cities and rural areas. That is why it is especially important to study the comportment of migrants moving between urban and rural environments. In line with this argument five case studies are presented in this special issue that use static or dynamic individual-level data to analyze urban-rural demographic differences and life courses of migrants in Europe (Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland), mainly during the nineteenth century. The outcomes show that the places of residence indeed influenced demographic behavior to a considerable extent, although they do not reflect a simple and strict division between cities and rural areas. Rather, demographic behavior was affected by a diversity of local conditions, including various town sizes, calling for a further exploration of the impact of local demographic, working and living conditions. The studies in this issue also warn against simplified views regarding migrants in the past, for instance, their depiction of being of relatively humble social background. For many migrants, their migration was not a definitive break with the place of origin, and they did not assimilate completely to the dominant behavior in their destination. Instead, migrants often remained embedded in and influenced by trans-regional social networks