Banking on Optimism: Why do Some Dutch Delta Engineers Resist the New Water and Soil System Policy?

Abstract

Engineers, long accustomed to finding technological solutions for any vulnerable location regardless of water and soil conditions, fear that a new Dutch spatial planning policy that takes the impacts of climate change into account will place limits on the scope of their activity. The concept of Water en Bodem Sturend (WBS), approximately translated in English as “water and soil as governing principles,” is considered a continuation of earlier proposals such as Meebewegen. This ecological and climate-informed policy transition has in fact been in development for at least three decades. Engineers resist the legal anchoring of this policy by downplaying the threat of sea level rise. Anchoring the concept of WBS in law is needed to create a break with technological solutions that are not well adapted and are based on complacency and optimism about sea level rise.