Natuurherstel en klimaatbuffers in beekdalen : Een verkenning van de mogelijkheden tot integratie van wateropgaven in beekdalen

Samenvatting

Most of the stream valleys in the Netherlands have multifunctional uses. The impact of climate change and hydromorphological modifications to stream valleys can lead to water management problems. Well-known problems are flooding and droughts. This study explores the potential of stream valleys in the Netherlands to act as climate buffers to mitigate negative effects such as periodically high discharges or stream drying, focusing on solving wate rmanagement problems through restoring natural ecohydrological stream valley processes. We investigated whether a spatial analysis could provide a better insight into the occurrence of water management problems and intopotential solutions to these issues. The potential for water retention, infiltration and preventing runoff wereexplored. The Dutch stream valleys were spatially defined and compared according to their (geo)morphological, hydrological and ecohydrological features. An approach has been developed based on existing spatial data to explore where water management issues might arise and provides solutions in terms of measures. This results in maps depicting spatially which areas in stream valleys are potentially suitable to act as climate buffers to support water management and policy making.This report contributes to the research questions from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency about th epotential for combining water management objectives in agricultural and urban areas with nature restoration and climate adaptation projects in stream valleys.