Heleen Vreugdenhil

Pilot projects in Water Management

Pilot projects appear in many forms in policy making and management. In an effort to understand the nature and use of pilot projects and improve their effectiveness, we undertake a practice-based and theoretical study of the pilot project phenomenon. First, we examine the roles assigned to pilot projects in the policy development literature and explore their use in a Dutch water innovation platform. Second, we determine characteristics of pilot projects to deepen insights into the nature of the pilot project phenomenon and the dimensions useful in the design of pilot projects. Third, we identify three pilot types and nine ways to use a pilot project and we develop a Pilot Project Nonagon that can be used to assess pilot projects’ uses and to compare stakeholders’ perspectives on these uses. Fourth, we identify hurdles to diffusion of the knowledge developed from pilot projects and suggest strategies to overcome these. Lastly, we formulate a research agenda aimed at addressing the identified knowledge gaps.

The Influence of Scale Preferences on the Design of a Water Innovation: A Case in Dutch River Management

The debate on scale use in river management focuses primarily on the (lack of) fit between the bio-geophysical and institutional systems. However, in this article we focus on the ‘subjective’ aspect of scale preferences in water governance. We apply an adapted version of the Integrated Scale Hierarchy for Rivers to determine the degree of fit between the scale preferences of the actors involved in a Dutch case study and the scale requirements of the innovative river management concept. This allows us to understand which riverine processes and characteristics are regarded as important by the different actors and to identify mismatches in scale perspectives as they manifest themselves in water management practice. We discover that inflexibility in scale use on the part of the involved actors places bounds on the design and quality of interventions and demonstrate that a more flexible use of scales in the design phase of a river management intervention has the potential to lead to more effective solutions.

Adapting scale use for successful implementation of Cyclic Floodplain Rejuvenation in the Netherlands

The adaptive management concept of Cyclic Floodplain Rejuvenation (CFR) has been implemented at the operational level in Dutch river management. The floodplains of Beuningen, situated to the west of Nijmegen functioned as a pilot study. Current river management formed the reference framework within which the CFR approach. By comparing and contrasting processes of importance within different floodplain management disciplines on a bio-geomorphological scale classification, differences in the scale preferences of involved actors were identified and understood. The tool developed to distinguish these different preferences in scales is the Integrated Scale Hierarchy. We concluded that the ability of river managers and conservationists to scale up for the purpose of CFR was a necessary condition for the success of operational CFR. The constraining arguments for focusing at the current floodplain level of management as opposed to the river reach level more suitable for the implementation of CFR measures, were then subjected to validation. We found the concerns for navigational safety and increased managerial complexity to be valid whereas the arguments relating to hydraulic effectiveness and conservation appeared to be ill-founded. Consequently, scaling up to the reach level remains a challenge for managers of the restrained lowland rivers of The Netherlands.