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Grote delen van de wereld hebben of krijgen mede door klimaatverandering in toenemende mate te maken met waterschaarsterisico’s. Ook Europa en Nederland zullen de dans niet ontspringen en zulle adequaat adaptatiebeleid moeten ontwikkelen en uitvoeren. Daarnaast zijn er binnen de EU en Nederland vergaande ambities om in 2050 een volledig circulaire economie tot stand te hebben gebracht. Eén van de strategieën om deze risico’s te lijf te gaan en bij te dragen aan de verwezenlijking van deze ambities is het hergebruik van (stedelijk) afvalwater. In dit artikel bespreken wij het Europeesrechtelijke kader en de implementatie daarvan in Nederland voor hergebruik van stedelijk afvalwater, met bijzondere aandacht voor Verordening 2020/741 inzake minimumeisen voor hergebruik van water die per 26 juni 2023 van kracht zal zijn. Vervolgens onderwerpen wij de ontwikkelingen in dit verband aan een discussie, waarbij we ingaan op de vraag of naar verwachting inderdaad grootschalig gebruik zal worden gemaakt van de mogelijkheden die de Verordening biedt en welke volgende ontwikkelingen te verwachten zijn.

Many river systems in Europe have altered morphology and deteriorated ecosystems due to human interference. We demonstrate how conflicting interests of nature, society and economics in the Dutch–German Ems-Dollard system complicate achieving the nature restoration targeted by the EU Water Framework Directive. This article provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the natural characteristics of a water system and the practical implementation of regulation and policy in a transboundary setting. Important shortcomings of EU and national laws and directives are the static constraints for protection of demarcated habitats under EU directives, which do not do justice to natural hydro-morphodynamic processes.

Conspicuous interdisciplinary effort has been spent on addressing the consequences of climate change in a forward-looking way. The concept of solution space is a recent contribution to help decision-makers identify feasible and effective adaptation solutions and to provide guidance on when they should be implemented and by whom. Although the current conceptualization of solution space already considers multiple disciplines, it re- mains dominated by biophysical ones and has not yet fully integrated legal and governance dimensions. This article first reflects on the current solution space framework through the lenses of law and governance and then proposes approaches to enrich legal and governance dimensions in the solution space concept. We argue that the legal and governance dimensions of the current concept of solution space can be improved by taking into account four aspects: 1) understanding the institutional and legal systems in a context-specific way; 2) embracing the dynamics and reflexivity of law and governance in the episteme of path dependency; 3) applying more diverse analytical methods (qualitative, qualitative/ quantitative, value-oriented) and/or assessments on a case-by-case basis; and 4) adding a normative perspective that includes the principles of legitimacy, transparency, account- ability, equity, and distributive justice to measure the appropriateness of a certain adaptation strategy. The article concludes with suggestions for future research on how to implement the enriched solution space concept.

Climate adaptation and water management, in particular flood risk management (FRM), in the Netherlands are strongly integrated policy domains. The observed and expected effects of climate change in the Netherlands will create a variety of pressures, particularly in relation to sea-level rise, increasing river discharges and changing precipitation patterns. Effective FRM is therefore stressed as a critical precondition for any future development and living in the Netherlands, both on the short and longer term. Partly influenced by the adoption of the European Floods Directive in 2007, the urgent need for climate adaptation is driving major developments in Dutch FRM, the most striking of which is the diversification and a partial shift in flood risk management strategies (FRMSs). This is best reflected in the adoption of the Dutch Delta Program as a basis for the development of long-term strategies for both flood and drought risk management, which inter alia initiated the development of the policy concept of ‘multi-layered safety’ and the adoption of a risk-based approach under the development of Dutch FRM. Whereas the focus in the Netherlands until recently was mainly and successfully on minimizing the probability of flooding (‘the fight against water’) and preparedness in case of a flood threat, in the course of time other strategies aimed at mitigating the effects of potential floods have gained a more prominent position (‘living with water’). As a result, FRM measures increasingly demand more space and more diverse actors became involved in Dutch FRM. This has increased complexity and fragmentation in the responsibilities for Dutch FRM, which resulted in an increasing need for communication, coordination and collaboration between different public and private actors in order to secure the effectiveness of FRM. These developments form the backdrop to this article, in which we analyse this broadened Dutch system of FRM and flood risk regulation. After having presented relevant facts and figures about flood risks in the Netherlands in Section 2, we describe the flood risk management strategies (FRMSs) stemming from the Floods Directive and the way in which these have been implemented in the Dutch FRM system in section 3. In Section 4, we discuss current observed developments and shifts in strategies, as well as relevant challenges these have brought about. In a synthesizing Section 5, the paper ends with a discussion of its findings. One of our key conclusions is that the development of innovative approaches in Dutch FRM is promising, but requires increased attention for challenges regarding coordination and cooperation, public participation and the availability of legal instruments to make spatial claims on privately owned land.