Delta Decision for Spatial Adaptation

Municipal and provincial authorities, water authorities, and the national government are working with private parties to keep damage caused by heat, problems with excessive water, drought and floods to a minimum. They take climate change into consideration in matters such as the construction of new housing estates and business parks, the renovation of buildings, the replacement of sewers and road maintenance. In doing so, they use information about how the climate is evolving: the KNMI’23 Climate Scenarios. 

Intermediate goals

A climate-resilient and water-robust country by 2050 sounds a long way off. Two intermediate goals have therefore been adopted. Since 2020, climate-resilient and water-robust planning have had to be embedded in all the policies and actions of the parties. Examples here include the environment visions and the associated spatial developments. Government authorities analyse the vulnerability level in their own areas by conducting stress tests (this is the ‘analysis’ phase). The results of this analysis are discussed in a risk dialogue with all the relevant partners and formulated as an adaptation strategy with specific goals and the associated measures (the ‘ambition’ phase). Finally, this ambition is embedded in an implementation agenda, other programmes, frameworks, and legislation and regulations (the ‘action’ phase). This cycle is not a one-off process: the authorities go through these phases every six years or if new developments require it. A new cycle began in 2024-2025. It includes adding to or renewing implementation agendas with climate adaptation measures. This approach also implies proper monitoring as a basis for decisions about additional steps. Developing and sharing knowledge about climate risks and solutions is also an important component.  

National vital and vulnerable functions 

The vital and vulnerable functions are important for climate-resilient and water-robust planning. Those functions include power supplies (electricity, gas, oil), telecommunications and IT (the public network and emergency communications), waste water, drinking water, health care (hospitals, for example) and pumping stations. The Delta Programme has a particularly strong focus on these functions because they may fail when there is flooding or extreme weather. Failures or malfunctions result in a lot of damage and major problems in crisis management: digital communications and roads are critical for evacuation, for example. 

Each vital and vulnerable function requires a tailor-made approach. That process is still in full swing. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management is working with several other ministries on legislation and regulations to make vital processes and networks more resilient to climate risks. We are also working on climate adaptation goals in the networks managed by Rijkswaterstaat and ProRail. 

Collaboration with the safety regions is important for the work on vital and vulnerable functions. In 2022, the safety regions conducted a supra-regional Flood Impact Analysis to study the impact of climate risks. They mapped out how to limit damage, casualties and disruption. It has emerged that the effects on power supplies are marginal outside areas prone to direct flooding. By 2050, the vital and vulnerable functions must be in a position to cope with floods, problems with excessive water, heat and drought.  

Milestones 2015-2025

Considerable progress has been made in recent years on the implementation of the Delta Decision for Spatial Adaptation. Milestones include:  

• There are working regions in the Netherlands that work with a range of parties on spatial adaptation in their own areas.  In some cases, the working regions join forces in regional consultation platforms. The working regions have conducted stress tests, risk dialogues and implementation agendas in the first DPRA cycle. Since early 2024, work has been under way to prepare for the new DPRA cycle. From 2025 onwards, the working regions are working on updating stress tests and a new round of risk dialogues.  
• Supra-regional stress tests for problems with excessive water will also be conducted from 2024 onwards in addition to the existing local and regional DPRA stress tests. They should provide a clearer national picture of the risks associated with large-scale extreme precipitation events and the possible cascade effects. This work is being done in line with the recommendation of the Pluvial and River Flooding Policy Platform, which was established after the 2021 floods in Limburg. 
• The implementation of measures under the Climate Adaptation Stimulus Scheme will continue until year-end 2027. The national government has contributed € 200 million from the Delta Fund and regional government authorities have contributed over €400 million.
• The provincial authority of Noord-Brabant developed a water signalling map (Dutch) that shows whether an area is suitable for urban expansion from the perspective of the water system. 
• The National Yardstick for a Green Climate-Adaptive Built Environment (Dutch) has been developed and it is increasingly being embedded by local government authorities. In the context of the Housing Summit (2025) as well, an appraisal is taking place to see which agreements can be made about applying climate resilience criteria in housing construction.  
• In 2023, 2024 and 2025, a survey was completed of the progress of the work in the regions and a report on that work has been included as an annex to the Delta Programme. Among other things, discussions were arranged with leading figures in the working regions and the community managers of the Climate-Resilient Together Platform. It consistently emerges from the discussions that the main challenges in the field of spatial adaptation involve establishing a sound position on the agenda for the urgency of climate adaptation. The available capacity at government authorities is also a concern with respect to decision-making and the implementation of concrete projects.   
• A national system has been developed to arrive at more concrete goals for spatial adaptation. 
• A concept for regional monitoring is being developed under the DPRA umbrella. In addition, maps with monitoring parameters to be determined country-wide are being developed.  
• An exploratory study has been published looking at structural funding options. Follow-up steps are still needed here, partly in anticipation of future political decision-making at both local government authorities and the national government. 
• The Ministries of Housing and Spatial Planning (VRO), Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W), Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN) and Education, Culture and Science (OCW) are working together to address foundation issues at the national level. The national government is establishing the conditions required to make the multi-level approach possible in the different areas. These include improving information provision and supporting process supervision. With the fellow government authorities working together and private partners – such as the financial and construction sectors – we are establishing the organisation for the approach. 
• Rijkswaterstaat and ProRail completed their stress tests and risk dialogues in 2021. The results from Rijkswaterstaat have been included in the Rijkswaterstaat Climate Impact Atlas.  
• Between 2015 and 2020, 23 impact projects (Dutch) were implemented to acquire practical knowledge and share good examples. They received financial support from the Spatial Adaptation Stimulus Programme.    
• The 2018 Delta Programme made a start on the Delta Plan for Spatial Adaptation (page 128 ff.), with seven ambitions to ensure the Netherlands will be climate-resilient and water-robust, and a six-year cyclical process. 
• The 2015 Delta Programme includes the Delta Decision for Spatial Adaptation (page 30 ff.). It underwent a periodical evaluation for the first time in the 2021 Delta Programme (page 69 ff.). 

Plans for 2025-2026

We will continue working in the years ahead on the implementation of the Delta Decision for Spatial Adaptation and the strengthening of the programme. The key components include:  

• Linking the agenda for climate adaptation to other spatial agendas such as the housing construction agenda, the energy transition, the agricultural transition, land subsidence, biodiversity and the mobility transition.  
• Support and knowledge sharing through the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Portal and the Climate Impact Atlas.   
• Linking the Delta Programme for Spatial Adaptation with the approach to problems with excessive water pursuant to the recommendations of the Pluvial and River Flooding Policy Platform. 
• Collaboration from the Delta Programme for Spatial Adaptation with the Freshwater Delta Programme and the Delta Programme for Flood Risk Management.  
• The Ministries of Housing and Spatial Planning (VRO), Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W), Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN) and Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) are working together to revise the National Climate Adaptation Strategy, that is expected to be completed in 2026. It sets out, for instance, actions that the ministries will taking on in order to make the built environment climate-robust and for climate adaptation in nature and agriculture.  
• From 2025 onwards, the working regions will use DPRA process support in the second DPRA cycle.  
• The implementation of the LIFE-IP Climate Adaptation programme. This Dutch programme, with co-funding from the European Union (EU), includes measures to speed up the implementation of climate-adaptation measures in the Netherlands.