Good practices in de 'spotlight'

Vanuit de projecten ‘Duurzaam telen, begint bij jou’ en ‘Telen met Toekomst’ is gezamenlijk een keuze gemaakt om per sector vijf Good Practices extra onder de aandacht te brengen. Per sector aandacht voor gewasbescherming en teeltsystemen

IWRM and the environment: A view on their interaction and examples where IWRM led to better environmental management in developing countries

This paper investigates the interaction between water resources management and the environment. It argues that an integrated, holistic approach to water management is beneficial for the environment but also that environmental concerns are not to be ignored for integrated water management to be effective. To this purpose the paper introduces the interactions between different water uses and why it is important to address these interactions for sustainable water resources management. It explains how the environment is being effected by the use of water by other sectors, and the benefits and implications of an integrated management system for the environment. Illustrated by several practical cases in Asia, Southern Africa and small island developing states, the paper makes a strong case for IWRM to be an effective approach for sustainable management at river basin level. It also demonstrates that stakeholder engagement form the start. and the process being driven by local interests and addressing real needs are elements of IWRM without which it will not work. The paper argues that addressing environmental is essential for sustainable use of water resources, and that strong political support and institutional backing is required for IWRM to be successful.Keywords: integrated water resources management, environment, river basins, interaction, water uses, benefits, implications, institutional, legislation, instruments, stakeholder participation, local managemen

Enhancing the Use of Flood Resilient Spatial Planning in Dutch Water Management:A Study of Barriers and Opportunities in Practice

Around the world, deltaic and coastal regions like the Netherlands are facing challenges from climate, change such as sea-level rise as well as more frequent and extreme natural events. Since 2009, the Dutch government has tried to mitigate flood vulnerability by deploying a balanced mix of flood protection measures, resilient spatial planning and crisis management (Multi-Layer Safety). However, recent evaluations have concluded that resilient spatial planning is (too) limitedly applied in practice. This article aims to understand the barriers and opportunities for resilient spatial planning in flood risk management by comparing two cases where resilient spatial planning was opted for: Dordrecht and the IJssel-Vecht Delta. The study suggests a large gap between the wide array of possible measures, and those that are actually realized in practice. Three physical-spatial barriers were identified: maximum flood depths, lack of space, and rigidity of the existing built environment. Additionally, institutional-organizational barriers were found, including: a false, low or non-existent safety perception or risk awareness, and therefore a lack of urgency to act; a lack of political and societal support; a suboptimal collaboration between stakeholders; ambiguity regarding responsibilities; finances and a cost-benefit imbalance; and a lack of human capital. Subsequently, the article explores possibilities to overcome these barriers. Overcoming these barriers can pave pathways for flood resilient spatial planning. The institutional-organizational barriers appear surmountable, whereas the physical-spatial barriers prove to be more problematic and form the most important restrictive factor for resilient spatial planning in flood risk management

The role of the public partner in innovation in transport infrastructure PPPs:A qualitative comparative analysis of nine Dutch DBFM projects

By transferring risks and responsibilities to the private sector, governments hope that public-private partnerships (PPPs) bring about innovations in transport infrastructure development. Taking the position that a PPP is not equal to outsourcing, this article explores the role of the public partner in innovation in infrastructure PPPs. To this purpose, nine Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM) projects in Dutch transport infrastructure development were systematically analyzed with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The results show that the presence of innovation is associated with multiple, nonexclusive combinations of three conditions: the procurement result of the partnership contract, the composition of the private construction consortium, and the project management by the public partner (i.e., stakeholder management, technical management, and contract management). In particular, the public partner's choice to enter into a PPP with a construction consortium consisting of a small number of firms is associated with innovation

Learning across teams in project-oriented organisations:The role of programme management

Purpose: Learning across teams and organisational levels enables organisations to deal with challenges that arise from changing contexts. Project-oriented organisations increasingly use programme management to cope with such challenges and improve performance. This paper aims to find out how different programme configurations affect learning across project teams and between project teams and their parent organisation in project-oriented organisations. Design/methodology/approach: A case study of a project-oriented organisation involved in five infrastructure programmes was performed. Findings: The studied programmes linked learning processes at group and organisational levels by creating relationships across project teams and their parent organisation and acting as a knowledge centre. Team learning benefits from the learning culture and stable environment that programmes create for project teams. This study indicates that a programme’s features and focus strongly determines whether a programme predominantly enhances learning across project teams or learning between project teams and their parent organisation. Originality/value: Although programme management is increasingly used by project-oriented organisations, there are few studies relating to learning in programmes. This study provides new insights into learning across teams through programmes

Building Adaptive Capacity through Learning in Project-Oriented Organisations in Infrastructure Planning

Transport infrastructure networks are currently being challenged by rapidly changing contexts, such as climate change, new IT and mobility technologies, ageing infrastructure, demographic changes and growing engagement of stakeholders. These challenges call for an adaptive management approach in infrastructure planning. Apart from making the physical infrastructure more adaptive, organisational adaptive capacity is currently being discussed in both literature and practice. The literature describes learning as one of the key elements of organisational adaptive capacity. However, it remains unclear how infrastructure network agencies learn. Most of these agencies are organised in a project-oriented way. Projects can be considered as information exchange platforms of individuals that have to align their knowledge and interpretations to collectively make sense of this information to deliver a project-result. However, projects operate relatively autonomously from their parent organisation. This article aims to enhance the understanding of how projects learn from each other and how the parent organisation learns from projects and vice versa. To this end, we have conducted an in-depth case study of a typical project-oriented organisation in infrastructure planning: Rijkswaterstaat - the executive agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands. Data was collected through documents and semi-structured interviews with members of a selection of projects of Rijkswaterstaat and other members of this organisation. We used Social Network Analysis to support the analysis of the data. Subsequently, the results were confronted with literature to understand how collective learning occurs in project-oriented organisations

Duurzaam Botrytis beheersen begint bij jou. De buurman in de spotlight

Hoeveel onderzoeksresultaten en methoden er ook bestaan om Botrytis te beheersen, wanneer de meerderheid van de telers ze niet toepast wordt er geen milieuwinst behaald. De meeste onderzoeksresultaten zijn publiekelijk beschikbaar, maar worden nog niet gebruikt. Van veel resultaten en methoden is binnen het project ‘Telen met toekomst’ bekeken of ze in de praktijk toepasbaar waren. De meest haalbare geïntegreerde gewasbeschermingsmethoden hebben de status gekregen van ‘Good Practice’: dit zijn maatregelen die effectief zijn tegen de belagers van het gewas, milieuwinst opleveren, economisch rendabel zijn en, vooral, inpasbaar zijn in de bedrijfsvoering van een grote groep telers. Om deze groep ook daadwerkelijk zover te krijgen dat ze deze good practices gaan toepassen is echter een extra inspanning nodig