Collaborating on Artworks

This task is not only enormous, but knowledge and expertise are scarce, the time until 2050 is limited, and we are dealing with a physical environment that is changing in many ways. We will only succeed if we work together: water authorities, Rijkswaterstaat, market parties, and knowledge institutions. The Working Together on Engineering Structures project was created to generate enthusiasm for this task, provide support, and facilitate its implementation.

HHNK has experience with such collaborations. That is why the project team has been housed here.  

View the interactive map

Unambiguous and effective approach for a stable programme 

To be ready on time, we want to tackle the task more quickly and in a coordinated manner. With austerity as our starting point and now also with a focus on sustainability. We see a great need for stable implementation. So what will it take to be ready by 2050?

First and foremost, a steady production rate. A uniform approach and/or scenarios help to achieve this. This allows the water authorities to see which approach is most suitable for them. We are developing this approach and also making agreements about difficult dilemmas.

In addition, knowledge is needed. This means retrieving what is already available or creating what is still lacking. Knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, and knowledge implementation are therefore key concepts. We want to ramp up production, but also maintain control and monitor stability. Stability for the HWBP (in terms of production fluctuations and cash flows), stability for market parties (insight into what, when, and how it comes onto the market), and stability for managers for their own internal portfolios.

Check out the project website with interactive map.

The impact of the project

Artworks are different from dikes and require their own approach. This also applies to seizing opportunities that remain untapped when artworks are simply included in a dike project. With Working Together on Artworks, we are working specifically on:

• (Stimulating) learning through 'doing'. Building on acquired experience and ongoing projects. This helps to convey the urgency of the situation; practical stories have a stronger impact than theoretical insights.
• Broadly across the Alliance, water authorities, and Rijkswaterstaat (RWS). RWS has now gathered a wealth of knowledge that is also relevant to water authorities and is keen to share this, learn together, and thus develop new knowledge.
• Align approach with current urgency and specific questions from water authorities. Water authorities that feel urgency and have questions at a later stage must be able to join in later.
• Contributing to the stability of the programme collaborating in the golden triangle with market and knowledge partners.

The intended end result

Collaborating on Engineering Structures delivers products, services, and activities that help to tackle more flood defense structures in primary flood defenses at a faster pace.

Project planning

In 2021, the task was mapped out and, among other things, an Artwork Route was developed. A standard step-by-step plan shows whether an artwork only needs maintenance or needs to be renewed. In addition, the route shows which choices you can make and where.

Currently (2024), we are working on the objectives (faster, more economical, more sustainable, more stable) along the following lines: 

• Providing insight into the task at hand using figures via an interactive map and a publication in which the task is classified according to water board, type of structure, and failure mechanism, known as the 'red book'.
• Developing a Roadmap for sustainable engineering structures.
• Unlocking knowledge through a public wiki hosted by knowledge partner Deltares.
• Developing concrete cooperation projects between water boards, RWS, and market parties.

For questions and information

Want to know more or have questions? Would you like to share your knowledge or contribute to the project objectives? Send an email to the project team atsk@hhnk.nl. For more background information, visit the project websitewww.samenwerkenaankunstwerken.nl orwww.hwbp.nl.

Flood protection program

In the HWBP, water boards and Rijkswaterstaat are working together on the biggest challenge since the Delta Works. Construction is underway in many places in the Netherlands. In addition to 1,500 kilometre , engineering structures will also be addressed over the next thirty years. This is necessary because the Netherlands is vulnerable to flooding. We are doing everything we can to prevent another flood. In this way, we are working together to create a country where you can live, work, and recreate safely. We are going to join forces, pass the ball to each other, learn from each other, and learn together. That is why we are working with market parties and knowledge institutions to ensure that, by 2050, the flood defense structures in primary flood defenses will have been reinforced, just like the dikes.