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MSc thesis Inge Bach: Water Management Transition in Times of Extreme Droughts and Flooding
You are hereby invited to the MSc thesis presentation by Inge Bach on ‘Water Management Transition in Times of Extreme Droughts and Flooding: Agricultural Sense-making, and Adaptation in the Netherlands’.
- Supervisors: Dr Wieke Pot and Noor Hendriks
- Examinor: Prof. Dr Art Dewulf
- Date: 26 June 2025
- Time: 14-15.00 hours
- Hybrid meeting: room 3048, Leeuwenborch, Link MS Teams meeting
ABSTRACT
The Netherlands faces increasing vulnerability to both water scarcity and water excess due to unsustainable spatial planning and climate change, necessitating a fundamental transition in water management. Within this context, Dutch farmers represent key stakeholders due to their extensive land ownership, water dependence, and local knowledge. Yet, they operate in a politically charged environment with complex sustainability demands. This study investigates how farmers make sense of, adapt to, and anticipate water extremes to inform the Waterscape project's goal of developing climate-resilient water systems.
An inductive meaning-making approach was employed, using a theoretical framework consisting of sense-making, configurations, adaptation and anticipation, and fixations to guide interview analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 farmers across two case study areas (the Utrechtse Heuvelrug and West Brabant), representing diverse agricultural practices. Observations of interactive processes and interviews with institutions complemented data collection.
The findings reveal that farmers experience water extremes through a shared sense of urgency driven by financial risks and soil degradation concerns, though urgency was not universally experienced. Adaptation and anticipation strategies focused strongly on dampening measures and technical solutions. Analysis identified four distinct worlds of meaning of farmers' responses, differentiated by perceived severity of water extremes, preferred adaptation scale (water system versus farm level), and sense of personal responsibility. Fixations as barriers to change were identified, which regard the manufacturability of water systems, the conviction of a right to water usage, and a feeling of distrust towards public institutions.
These configurations and the anticipated and planned actions provide relevant insights for policy development, highlighting the need to avoid one-size-fits-all approaches, focus on transformative rather than adaptive capacity, and institutionalise farmer involvement in water management decisions. This research confirms farmers' essential role in a water management transition while providing a nuanced understanding of their diverse perspectives. The findings create a foundation for targeted engagement strategies and future action research within the Waterscape research project of Wageningen University and Utrecht University, aimed at supporting the transition toward more sustainable water systems by developing climate-resilient and adaptive water systems embedded in local landscapes.
Key words: Water extremes, Agriculture, Water transition, Sense-making, Configurations, Adaptation, Anticipation