Delta Plan for Spatial Adaptation

The second cycle of stress tests, risk dialogues and the drafting of implementation agendas will start from 2025 onwards. If necessary, the stakeholders will update their threat assessments in response to the KNMI’23 climate scenarios. They will do this using the updated leaflet for stress tests and they can use the Climate Impact Atlas for this purpose. 

Risk dialogues

With respect to the ‘risk dialogues’ ambition, it is important for working regions to closely follow the results of supra-regional stress tests and dialogues at that scale. The provincial authorities are coordinating this supra-regional process. At the start of the second DPRA cycle, concrete objectives may be developed using the adaptation pyramid. Working regions are supported with a budget of over € 2 million from the Delta Fund, supplemented by funding from the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning. The intention is that the new cycle will lead to new or updated implementation agendas. The Delta Programme for Spatial Adaptation is continuing to invest in knowledge exchange, for example through the DPRA ‘knowledge in the region’ meetings. With respect to the ‘risk dialogues’ ambition, it is important for working regions to closely follow the results of supra-regional stress tests and dialogues at that scale. The provincial authorities are coordinating this supra-regional process. At the start of the second DPRA cycle, concrete objectives may be developed using the adaptation pyramid. Working regions are supported with a budget of over € 2 million from the Delta Fund, supplemented by funding from the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning. The intention is that the new cycle will lead to new or updated implementation agendas. The Delta Programme for Spatial Adaptation is continuing to invest in knowledge exchange, for example through the DPRA ‘knowledge in the region’ meetings. 

Embedding

It is also important to explore options for embedding climate adaptation, for example in legislation and regulations. Climate adaptation must be an overarching theme in all planning (and particularly spatial planning) activities conducted by the national government, provincial authorities, water authorities and municipal authorities. Steps are already being taken in this respect but there is still a long way to go. The DPRA working regions are asking parties to put forward national frameworks for climate adaptation, such as the National Yardstick for a Green and Climate-Adaptive Built Environment. As a result, parties will know where they stand and climate adaptation will not continue to be dependent on local initiatives. The agreements made at the Housing Summit 2024 also addressed uniform regulations. A national framework provides a level playing field and capacity savings for municipalities as a result of clarity at the outset. In addition, it also means that municipal authorities will not have to reinvent the wheel. Not only that, more and more providers of vital functions are looking at measures to mitigate physical risks due to climate change. New legislation and regulations such as the Critical Entities Resilience Act (in line with the EU CER Directive) make the inclusion of risks of this kind less optional. The national government is committed, with legislation of this kind, to supplying providers of vital functions with the necessary information about climate risks. The national government itself owns vital infrastructure that is managed by, for example, Rijkswaterstaat. Rijkswaterstaat is currently clarifying the implications of the CER directive in practice.

Linkage

Climate adaptation is not an isolated challenge. The DPRA working regions and many organisations responsible for networks and vital functions are engaged in unremitting work to integrate and link climate adaptation with policy, implementation and management.  

Emergency response

The 'emergency response' ambition is being encouraged through the adaptation pyramid by looking seriously at the risks that cannot be eliminated and the action needed if things do go wrong. The organisations responsible for vital functions are working to better understand exposure to, and the implications of, flood and climate risks. Local government authorities are reviewing the consequences of events such as large-scale power cuts due to extreme rainfall. Here, it is necessary for the safety regions and municipal health services to be closely involved. Increasing progress has been made successfully in this respect in several regions. The safety regions themselves are also actively elaborating the details of climate adaptation by thinking about spatial adaptation issues up front.