Work package 2 socio economic evaluation. Water Assets: Summary

The Dutch coast carries a variety of values. With its diversity in dune areas, its shallows and the delta areas, the coastal area of the Netherlands has a high ecological value, forming a unique biotope for a great variety of plant and animal species, and providing an important foraging area for migrating birds. The economic importance of the Dutch coast is significant as well. The coastal waters provide a large area for the fishing industry and in the wide dunes drinking water has been extracted since the nineteenth century. The Dutch coast is the gateway to the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam and it also attracts millions of tourists every year. Furthermore, the coastal area is popular as a residential and as an agricultural area. Finally, the Dutch coast carries many socio-cultural values. For centuries, the coast has played an important role in securing the safety of the hinterland while the image of the coast with its dikes, dunes and water works is characteristic of Dutch cultural history. Against this backdrop, the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) has established the umbrella project Water Assets within the organisation for water exploration (WVK). The most important reason this project has been established is that in the past the costs were often a deciding factor in the specification of policies on water, while the assets of water management were often not considered in detail. Participants in the Water Assets project are, among others, the National Institute for Coast and Sea (RIKZ) and the National Institute for Inland Water Management and Wastewater Treatment (RIZA). In the context of salt water management, the RIKZ had two case studies1 carried out by the Institute for Environmental Issues (IVM) and Resource Analysis (RA). The first case study is aimed at an Integrated Coastal Zone policy, in which various options of coastal management of the Hondsbossche Zeewering are evaluated. The second case study investigates the idea of a Veluwe on Sea. In this case study, the effects of the introduction of a natural sea reserve in the Voordelta area are evaluated. The central question in the Water Assets project is how to make the benefits of integrated water management and policy visible. It is all about quantifying the benefits and disadvantage of certain actions, comparing the different dimensions of certain effects and balancing both against each other. It was decided to split the project three ways into ecological (Green issues), economic (Financial issues) and socio-cultural (Opinions) methods of evaluation. Management and legal issues in this study do not form separate aspects; they are tools or they are part of the three abovementioned topics