Spatial planning (building elsewhere) and building requirements (building otherwise)

Spatial planning can effectively reduce the vulnerability of an area, and thus the consequences of flooding (Schelfaut et al., 2011; van Herk et al., 2011). Not only water management has a long tradition in the Netherlands, but so has spatial planning. In this chapter we will review the policies and legislation that affect flood zoning in the Netherlands Table 2 gives an overview of these policies and legislation, a short description of their content and their implications for flood risk reduction.