Activities
As part of the European project ‘Freude am Fluss’ various activities are being carried out in the three participating countries:
Intervision meetings bring together experts from France, Netherlands and Germany for the purpose of learning how ‘outsiders’ look at flood risk management in the host country.
The innovative approach of ‘Freude am Fluss’ includes a number of projects in which new ways of flood risk management are being developed. In at least three municipalities spatial plans will be changed according to the recommendations of these projects.
Integral part of the ‘Freude am Fluss’ concept is to strengthen the ways in which local actors and the public at large participate in decision making processes concerning flood risk management. Joint Planning Approach (or JPA) stands out for its collective way of planning and deals with joint problem analysis, mutual learning, shared visioning, joint inventory of options and so on.
Cyclic (floodplain) Rejuvenation
Since the 1990s a new way of managing floodplains is being developed in the Netherlands. It consists of restoring the vegetation to a kind of primordial situation (which is a natural process in fluvial ecosystems). Through river management, conditions are created necessary for the return of fauna and flora species, with a diminished flood risk as a result.
In October and November 2007 the Freude am Fluss project carried out an international questionnaire among the population of Germany, France and the Netherlands. The questionnaire is send to a total of 7000 addresses in villages and cities along the Rhine, the Loire and the Waal. The goal of the questionnaire is to know more about the public’s perceptions of nature, of the river and of river management. This is valuable information to base future river policies upon.