Space for people? Citizen action in three Space for the River projects (original) (raw)

Flood interventions are generally justified with a view to the common good, to security. ‘Making space for the river’ as currently advocated in the UK and the Netherlands emphasises non-structural approaches combining environmental values with economic development and safe water levels. Yet, the local response to ‘making space’ is rarely ecstatic. The present contribution looks into the citizen response to three river interventions to ´make space´. A degree of conflict can be expected because interventions in the general interest almost inevitably require sacrifice of locally affected stakeholders. Yet, the three cases seem to show that finding space for rivers is not always regarded locally as the problem, but rather the process of decision-making and communication. The paper will discuss the cases of the Maidenhead, Eton and Windsor Flood Alleviation Scheme, subsequently rechristened the Jubilee River on the Thames; the set-aside for controlled flooding of the Ooij polder in the Netherlands, near the German border, and the Zutphen bypass on the river Ijssel, a tributary of the river Rhine, also in the Netherlands. It sketches the history and assesses how citizen action influenced the decision-making. The Jubilee River won several awards for its innovative engineering, while the Space for the River programme was deemed an administrative success (ten Heuvelhof 2007). The present paper however will argue that each of the projects analysed below could have been more successful with better communication between authorities and citizens.