Deltas and coastal zones around the world are rapidly becoming the focus of urbanization and economic development. By 2050 roughly half the world’s population will be living in cities in such areas. The same areas harbour ecosystems that are massively important from both an economic and an ecological perspective and are essential for our food supply. These facts alone make the sustainable socio-economic development of deltas and coastal zones a challenge.

The changing global climate puts additional pressure on what is already a challenging situation. How do we deal with sea level rise, with shifts in the discharges of river systems, with subsidence and drought, and with the interactions between climate and built-up areas, such as heat stress and runoff? How do we deal with salinization and guarantee adequate water supplies?

For the Netherlands, finding answers to these questions is a matter of survival. This is why we have the Delta Programme, anchored in a special law, the Delta Act, with two objectives: to guarantee our water safety and adequate water supplies. This long-term programme has been devised to deal with an uncertain future. The direction of change is clear, but its magnitude is not. That is why we need to look for flexible solutions to be integrated and sustainable, to make sure our investments in water safety and water supply as much as possible also serve additional interests, while taking into account their impact on our environment.

Building with Nature is a concept that perfectly fits that approach. Where possible we strive to reach our objectives by making use of natural processes, creating integrated solutions that are flexible, that help to safeguard our economy and boost our ecology, that are both cost effective and sustainable, and that make our country safer and more attractive as a place to live.

The need for such solutions was recognized at an early stage and led to the formation of a consortium in which government, knowledge institutions and private enterprises joined forces, building a unique network of expertise to expand our knowledge of how this concept can be developed and realized in projects. This is the EcoShape consortium. The present book is the result of this unique cooperation. It gives some striking examples of various environments in which the concept of Building with Nature can be applied.