Samenvatting

This research is part of the international FRAMES project, a cooperation between the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, and Denmark to share knowledge and experiences with the Multi-Layer Safety approach. The shared data is used to build sustainable strategies and improve the capacity of authorities to cope with flooding. The aim of this research is to design an impact assessment for spatial adaptation measures in relation to flood resilience. Spatial adaptation measures are not one-size-fits-all measures, recognizing that each area is different, with different spatial characteristics and different people. This fact underpins the notion that our environment is a complex adaptive social-ecological system. Resilience in social-ecological systems eliminates the assumption of fixed equilibria and assumes that systems continuously change. From this perspective, social-ecological resilience is not the capacity to bounce back to a previous state, but a systems capacity to deal with change. The conceptualization of resilience has also been adapted into the field of flood risk management. Flood resilience includes four types of resilience; spatial resilience, structural resilience, social resilience, and flood risk resilience. The systems thinking approach learns that the focus should be on combining the four aspects of flood resilience. An integral part of this research is to seek for a framework that can be used to assess spatial adaptation measures in relation to flood resilience. The definition of flood resilience shows strong similarities with the 4+1 model, which can be dismantled, adapted, and used as assessment framework. This leads to six aspects on which spatial adaptation measures are assessed; (1) water system, (2) land-use, (3) critical infrastructure, (4) economics, (5) social capital, and (6) ecology. In accordance with professionals from various governing entities in the province of Zeeland, the aspects have been supplemented with indicators of flood resilience, which are presented in the “scorecard”. Experts can assess the impact of the spatial adaptation measure for each of the latter aspects to desribe the impact on flood resilience. This assessment framework is drafted using the showcase Yerseke, which is located in the FRAMES pilot area; the municipality of Reimerswaal. The three selected spatial adaptation measures are a wadi in the Marijkestraat, redevelopment of the Kerkhoekstraat, and constructing a ditch in the Molenpolderweg. All the measures positively contribute to flood resilience, but do not influence the critical infrastructure nor the economics in Yerseke.