Introduction

The Netherlands is a densely populated and highly urbanised delta area, about half of which is situated below sea-level. In 2007 16.4 million people lived on 41,528 km2. Its landscapes reflect an age-long struggle with land and water. Through reclamations, the Dutch have made their country fit for habitation and agricultural production over the ages. Regulation of the water level by technical means has resulted in a highly man-made landscape of ‘polders’, especially in the lower parts of the country. Without dykes and dunes a major part of the country would just not exist (Figure 11.1).

The Dutch word ‘polder’ reflects core characteristics of both the country and its people. In a narrow sense it refers to a spatial-technical category, i.e. a spatial entity in which the water level is regulated by technical means. As early as the Middle Ages the shared concerns of farmers and landowners about adequate management of land and water forced them to organise themselves into water boards and to coordinate their actions. And so, practices of consultation, negotiation and coordination between relevant actors became ‘normal Dutch practice’ quite early. Although Dutch society has grown much more complex today, its core identity is still in its ‘polder culture’. It is rooted in a historical understanding of mutual interdependencies between the inhabitants of the ‘polder’.

Taking this history into account, it is quite obvious that ‘spatial planning’ in terms of future-oriented, coordinated action regarding spatial development and physical layout is not a recent phenomenon.