Compensation in Flood Risk Management with a Focus on Shifts in Compensation Regimes Regarding Prevention, Mitigation and Disaster Management 1.2. Research question As mentioned above, the Dutch have a special relationship with the waters surrounding them. The topographical and demographical circumstances of the Netherlands were leading in measures that were taken in the past. Being highly densely populated, keeping people away from the water was no option. For this reason flood protection consisted of measures to keep the water away from the people through flood defence measures. Another aspect of being highly densely populated is that most of the property of the Netherlands is owned by private parties. Hence, defensive measures influence private property to a large extent. This in turn led to the development of compensation regimes. Therefore, compensation and flood risk management in the Netherlands are closely connected and developed. The existence of compensation regimes led to the legitimacy of measures taken to protect the country against flooding with the result that these measures could be carried out easily. However, adaptations to one may lead to necessary adaptations in the other, thus slowing down the decision-making process. At the moment, various developments in both flood risk management and compensation regimes are taking place. In the Netherlands the general trend is to integrate and merge legal provisions and legislation. 4 This affects flood risk management legislation and compensation regimes as well. However, the current trend in flood risk management is towards a focus on the segmentation of responsibilities among different public and private actors. In view of these incompatible trends the question is: Do the current developments in flood risk management-shifting from prevention towards mitigation and disaster management, therefore from integration to segmentation-suit the harmonized compensation regimes? In order to answer this question I will describe the developments of both flood risk management and compensation regimes regarding nofault liability with a focus on responsibilities and connections between these two areas. 2. Water safety as a public task 2.1. Concise history of water management from a legal point of view. The Netherlands has a rich history with regard to the fight against water. In the 11 th century land was reclaimed and inhabitants started to build dikes to protect themselves and their new land against flooding. Landowners who had an interest in the protection of their property started co-operations to secure their water management interests, the so-called water boards. With the increasing number of dikes, dike breaches also became more frequent. 5 Because of the size and lack of integration of the water boards, no cooperation was established between them. In the 15 th century great floods occasionally forced the central Government to intervene in order to coordinate some kind of water management. In the 17 th and 18 th centuries not only dikes protected the land but a...
Flood risk management is an eminent example of a policy field in which the distribution of burdens and benefits takes place. Flood risks are distributed unequally among society and measures that reduce or prevent flood risks also distribute burdens and benefits. Flood risk management measures may infringe property rights that are protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (art. 17 in conjunction with art. 52 (3) and European Convention on Human Rights (art. 1 First Protocol). The Charter and the Convention are a safety net for these infringements and form a basic demand of the domestic compensation regimes. The underlying principle of these European, but also domestic compensation regimes can be found in the French principle égalité devant les charges publiques [equality before public burdens]. A compensation regime can mitigate adverse effects of flood risk management. This paper scrutinises the domestic compensation regimes of the Netherlands, Flanders and France for loss caused by flood prevention and flood protection and flood recovery measures. It shows that burdens are unequally distributed, not only between the three jurisdictions, but also within the jurisdictions. It also shows that the égalité principle is not applied in a consistent way.
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New flood risks require a new flood risk management approach. In the Netherlands there has always been a strong focus on flood defence. However, flood defence in the form of dikes alone will not be sufficient to keep the Netherlands habitable in the future. The 'Room for Water' debate has led to a new legal instrument: water storage areas, which fits perfectly in one of the requirements of the Floods Directive. This relatively new instrument has its own legal framework that is embedded in water law as well as in spatial planning law. This paper analyses the legal framework of the Dutch water storage areas in order to provide a swot analysis that may serve other states that aim to improve their flood risk management strategies. Keywordswater storage areas -legal framework -Dutch flood risk management -flood risk prevention
Willemijn van Doorn-Hoekveld and Marleen van Rijswick IntroductionClimate change is happening and it will have severe effects on human wellbeing and prosperity. It is expected that climate-driven natural hazards will increase both in frequency and in magnitude in the near future (IPCC, 2021). These natural hazards will affect coastal, rural and urban areas. Besides effects on biodiversity and humans also property might be damaged or decrease in value. This requires disaster management, ranging from prevention to recovery. Protection of property and property rights are relevant nationwide at all scales and in all areas, although the discussion often focusses on property and property rights in urban areas.The question arises of how can best be reacted to the threat of increasing natural hazards and their effects on humans and their property. W. van Doorn-Hoekveld (B) • M. van Rijswick School of Law, Utrecht Centre for Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law,
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