Decision making in Dutch coastal research based on coastal management policy assumptions

Rijkswaterstaat is the executive agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water management in the Netherlands. Rijkswaterstaat is tasked with the operation and maintenance of the coast in relation to Coastal Flood and Erosion Risk Management (CFERM). The major part of this work is the nourishment of the coast with sediments to sustainably maintain coastal functions such as protection of the low-lying hinterland against flooding, infrastructure on the dunes and dune habitats. To help with this it continually refines and updates the coastal management policy and practice and leads multiple research programs.

To make sure that these research programs remain up to date and coherent Rijkswaterstaat uses the explicit and implicit strategic, tactical and operational CFERM goals and associated CFERM policy assumptions to guide them. In this paper we use a case study on the planning and implementation of government-initiated coastal research in the Netherlands, to demonstrate how this research feeds back into CFERM policy and practice. Finally we give examples of how the research has helped shape policy and practice.