Cooperation with the United States on water
Regardless of geographical size and scope, the significance of water management is just as important in the Netherlands as it is in the United States. Rijkswaterstaat has a long tradition of working together with the United States to refine water safety and management practices across both nations.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Rijkswaterstaat has been working with the USACE for more than 100 years. The two organisations share an amazingly similar history: despite the ocean between them, they both have over 200 years of experience managing water.
Since 2004, USACE and Rijkswaterstaat have been working together on numerous areas of common interest under the umbrella of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This MoU was renewed in 2019.
Areas of cooperation include integrated water resource management, levee and dam safety, engineering with nature, asset management, and structural health monitoring. But also navigation and hydraulic infrastructure, hazard and disaster management, knowledge and innovation management, and various topics related to R&D.
Since 2012, the UK Environment Agency has also been collaborating on many of these topics through the joint publication of the International Levee Handbook.
200 years of shared history on water management
To find out more about our shared history, see Water Resources Management.
Levee inspections
What makes a good levee? What criteria should be used? What are the risks and how do we communicate them to other stakeholders? Since 2017, the Levee Safety Partnership under the USACE-Rijkswaterstaat MoU has been carrying out levee test inspections.
It has been using approaches developed in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The findings are comprehensively discussed and reviewed, with a view to improving future practices.
South Florida Water Management District
The South Florida Water Management District is a regional governmental agency that manages the water resources in the southern half of the state.
Its mission is to protect and restore South Florida's water resources and ecosystems, to protect its communities from flooding and to meet the region's water needs, while engaging with the public and stakeholders.
Rijkswaterstaat cooperates with the SFWM District on issues such as water emergency management, operational water management and adaptive planning.