21st Century (2000–present)

Flevoland Omgevingsvisie

2017 · Netherlands · Western & Central Europe · Ecological, landscape-led, and resilience planning · Planned by Provincie Flevoland
Aerial view of the reclaimed Flevoland polder landscape, Netherlands.
Aerial view of the reclaimed Flevoland polder landscape, Netherlands. · CC BY-SA 2.0

Core idea

Water/landscape-led development

Why it matters

Young province’s long-range structure

Description

A provincial environment and spatial vision (omgevingsvisie) adopted in 2017 by Flevoland, the Dutch province created entirely on land reclaimed from the former Zuiderzee in the twentieth century. Framed as 'FlevolandStraks', it sets a long-range course for a young polder landscape: guiding growth of Almere and Lelystad, renewable energy, agricultural transition and nature development such as the Oostvaardersplassen area, all anchored in the province's defining water and landscape structure. It is a strategic framework in the spirit of the incoming Dutch Environment Act rather than a blueprint.

Significance

The vision is significant as strategic planning for a wholly designed territory — the world's largest reclamation project confronting its second generation of choices about identity, growth and ecology. It exemplifies the Dutch shift from prescriptive spatial plans to integrated, invitation-based 'omgevingsvisies', and Flevoland's water- and landscape-led framing carries the polder tradition of design-before-settlement into contemporary adaptive planning.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.