Policy Document │ Delta Programme 2025: Outlines

Author(s): Deltaprogramma
Date: 2024-09-17 
Language: English

The document sets out the Netherlands’ strategy to address growing risks from wetter winters, hotter and drier summers, sea-level rise and salinisation, coupling water management with spatial planning. It calls for accelerating dike upgrades, reserving space for future flood defences and giving rivers more room, while shifting towards nature-based and transformational measures where optimisation no longer suffices. Freshwater security requires stricter allocation, local retention, reduced demand and land-use changes, particularly in sandy highlands and peatlands. The programme stresses long-term financial stability and workforce capacity, plus coordinated national-regional decisions guided by “Water and Soil as Leading Factors”.

Relevant climate hazards: Temperature; Heat; Precipitation; Saline intrusion; Sea level rise; Drought; Flood; Subsidence