After near-flood evacuations in 1993 and 1995, the Room for the River programme shifted policy from simply raising dikes to giving rivers more space to flood safely. At some thirty locations dikes were relocated inland, floodplains lowered, side channels dug and obstacles removed, combining higher safety with improved landscape and habitat. Iconic schemes include the relocated dike and high-water channel at Nijmegen. The programme ran from 2007 to 2018.
Room for the River marked a strategic turn from resisting water to accommodating it, an influential model of adaptive flood management.
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