ABSTRACT
The Room for the River project is remarkable because the Dutch Pavlovian response to answer the new threat with cycle of raising the dikes was suppressed. The Room for the River program is yet another project that showcases Dutch expertise, not only because of the engineering and water management ingenuity on display, but above all because of the way flood protection has been combined with landscape quality. Strict conditions were imposed in the Room for the River program because of the ambitious landscape quality objectives that had been formulated at the start: the river landscape had to be more attractive after the 34 projects had been completed than before the program started. The quality team, which became known as the "Q-team," was instructed to provide guidance for the 34 projects during the planning phase through to the tender stage. Quality is not measurable, but it is negotiable.
