Historic Cae Study Maasvlakte 2 - a review of the monitoring plan with focus on adaptive strategies

The Maasvlakte 2 (MV2) is a new location for port activities and industry to be created in the North Sea, directly to the west of the current port of Rotterdam and the surrounding industrial area. The required sand will be taken from carefully selected locations at sea, but will also become available when the port itself is deepened. The land reclamation will cover around 2000 hectares in total. Half of this will consist of infrastructure area, such as sea defences, fairways, railways, roads and port basins. The other 1000 hectares will provide the space for industrial sites. Two permits are required for the sand extraction: a permit for the construction and presence of the Maasvlakte 2, including the required sand extraction under the Nature conservation law (Ministerie van LNV 2008); and a permit for the extraction of sand under the Mineral Extraction law (Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat 2008). The project is permitted under conditions, among which a monitoring plan is required. The permit requirements, monitoring plan, monitoring execution and - evaluation are described in the following sections.