PAP 79: Landscape and ecological transition

The case of the Netherlands

Roberta Pistoni, October 2024

Le Collectif Paysages de l’Après-Pétrole (PAP)

To download : article-79-collectif-pap_rp.pdf (4.5 MiB)

« What remained was a thin strip of coastline, bordering the North Sea, to experiment with man’s ability to form true thoughts, to make himself, at the same time, “possessor and master of nature”. It was the Netherlands. » Pierre Bergounioux, Une chambre en Hollande, Verdier, Lagrasse, 2009, p. 47 and 57.

The Netherlands has a modest surface area that has been densely populated for a long time, but it is heavily built-up and developed. Its population density is four times higher than that of France, which is one thirteenth the size of the country. These facts have forced the Dutch to take a close and continuous look at the development of their land, much of which has been reclaimed from the sea over the centuries by creating polders surrounded by dykes. By construction, these polders are below sea level, and the progressive settling of the soil increases their vulnerability. The country’s morphological and coastal characteristics therefore expose it to the risks associated with climate change. They also make people more aware of the need to adapt to climate change and to mitigate it.

Imaginary energy landscapes in the Netherlands

The relationship between landscape and energy has historical roots in the Netherlands, as can be seen in the Kinderdijk site in particular. The result of considerable engineering work, its famous windmills used wind energy to evacuate water from the polders, guarantee agricultural production and protect homes. This emblematic feature of the Dutch landscape is in fact a technical energy landscape that has stood the test of time. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has become a tourist and leisure destination, where you can wander through a landscape of dykes, canals and mills. During my investigations in the country, I noticed that the Dutch often have the same tolerant view of energy technologies installed in the landscape. One of the most famous examples in the Netherlands is the Irene Vorrink wind farm in Flevoland Polder, north of the town of Lelystad. The wind turbines are positioned just a few metres off the Ijsselmeer dike, along the continuous shoreline. The wind farm illustrates a strong and clear principle, in contrast to the more spread-out and chaotic projects. After a period of opposition, the site is now popular with walkers and well known for wedding photos. At other sites, I’ve noticed that the multifunctionality of these very dense landscapes, where economic production, energy production and tourism are combined in an accepted way, is a frequent and accepted feature, as can also be seen at Flevoland, where the famous tulips bloom. This polder attracts thousands of tourists in April, which has not prevented many wind turbines from being built in the area. Another example of combining functions can be found in the Goeree-Overflakkee polder, whose windy areas are used for windsurfing activities and also produce wind-generated electricity, two compatible ways of using the wind’s energy.

The Dutch relationship with energy is also one of energy sobriety and is illustrated by the landscape of soft mobility, particularly cycling. In addition to extremely dense, meshed systems of cycle paths, there are places in towns and cities to park as many bikes as possible above or below ground, with a density that, in France, only exists for car parks. These examples do not mean that there has not been opposition to the transformations of the landscape imposed by the urgent needs of the energy transition. Success stories do exist. These cases are gradually helping to change the way we look at things.

The gradual inclusion of energy in landscape issues

Frameworks and tools exist in the Netherlands to ensure the future of landscapes in the face of the challenges of energy transition. National landscape strategies have been developed, such as the Landschap Agenda (2008) drawn up by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. The Netherlands ratified the European Landscape Convention in 2005, but added a declaration stating that this ratification would have no impact on its landscape legislation. In fact, ratification has gradually played a role in the development of national legislation. Since the 1990s, the central document for the development of landscape strategies in the territories has been the landscape development plan (Landschapsontwikkelingsplan, LOP), the main instrument through which local institutions manage the landscape and its project. This plan is implemented on a voluntary basis by one or more municipalities in order to preserve the specific character of the Dutch landscape while accompanying desirable changes. With great similarities to French landscape plans, LOPs consist of three parts: a landscape analysis of the area, a strategic vision and a programme of actions, specifying those responsible, the players involved and often a funding system for the proposed actions. From 1995 to 2010, the central government allocated subsidies to municipalities so that they could draw up LOPs. Fifteen years later, over 70% of municipalities had drawn up LOPs (Agenda landschap, 2008). Initially, these documents did not focus on energy issues. With the gradual rise in energy and environmental issues, several of these plans have addressed the question of renewable production, and in particular wind power (e.g. LOP Goeree-Overflakkee).

Since the Land Use Act Spatial Planning Act 2008, and as subsequently indicated in the document Structural Vision for Infrastructure and Space (2012), the landscape issue has been decentralised. It now falls under the authority of the provinces and especially the municipalities. As a result, funding for LOPs has been suspended, and their development has slowed down.

The growing importance of environmental and energy issues has nevertheless led the Government Advisory Council to draw up several documents on the relationship between landscape and energy. This independent, multi-disciplinary council brings together an architect, an urban planner and a landscape architect, elected for four years, who work for the government two and a half days a week. They provide advice, both solicited and unsolicited, on spatial quality, a term that covers the wide range of issues facing the Netherlands. The first documents dealing with energy issues focused mainly on wind power, such as Wind turbines in the Dutch landscape (2007) by landscape architect and professor Dirk Sijmons, or Wind turbines need a landscape history (2009) by landscape architect Yttje Feddes. Subsequently, publications have included other renewable energy production technologies, such as the Report on Energy - Transition to Sustainable Development (2016) by landscape architect Eric Loutien. More recently, the reduction of consumption in terms of mobility has also been addressed, as shown by the document La via de Paris. An exploratory project for a climate-neutral Netherlands (2019) and the very recent Un effet de levier pour un avenir propre (2022).

A major publication was Energy & Space. A national perspective (Sijmons et al. 2017), coordinated by a landscape designer and co-authored by several environmental designers from universities and practitioner offices commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the Delta Metropolis Association. The aim was to identify the space requirements for renewable energy production systems, taking into account the need to reduce consumption. The aim of the document was to support the National Climate Agreement setting out energy and greenhouse gas reduction targets for the Netherlands, which will be approved in 2019. It was also intended to provide input for the Environmental Act, which reforms the Dutch planning system by introducing a more integrated view of the various issues (water, energy, etc.) and their contexts.

The government is encouraging research and gathering opinions on the spatial and landscape component of the transition. It is worth mentioning, however, that alongside the word landscape, the term spatial quality (ruimtelijke kwaliteit) is often used in these documents, emphasising the fact that one of the major challenges for the Netherlands is the surface area required to implement its energy objective.

All of these documents are drawn up with the contribution of landscape architects, who are naturally involved in thinking about the wider landscape. In the Netherlands, as in France, landscape architecture is linked to the tradition of parks and gardens. It began to evolve significantly in the 1920s within the Dutch system. Since then, landscape architects have gradually gained strategic recognition in territorial planning, and this is still the case today.

Landscapes of the energy transition: the case of the Goeree-Overflakkee area

The implementation of the transition is taking shape in the regions on the basis of this national debate. One interesting case is that of the municipality of Goeree-Overflakkee, an island-polder located in the Dutch Delta to the south of the city of Rotterdam. A popular tourist destination for the Dutch, this area of agricultural production includes a number of urban centres. Local institutions have explored the relationship between energy transition and landscape to support their decision-making over the years. In the Energy Agreement for Sustainable Growth (2013), which sets out national targets distributed in a top-down fashion across the various provinces and municipalities, energy savings of 100 PJ and the production of 6,000 MW of onshore wind power were set for 2020. Due to its sparse population, the island of Goeree-Overflakkee was targeted for 300 MW of onshore wind generation.

In order to ensure that the production target was also met in terms of the quality of the resulting landscape, the local authority immediately commissioned a firm of landscape architects to draw up the document Goeree- Overflakkee, sustainable energy in the landscape. The aim was to describe the existing landscape structures, identify local resources and propose different scenarios for locating renewable energy production facilities beyond wind power alone. Four scenarios were proposed: opportunistic, pragmatic, monumental and narrative. Energy production could be more or less concentrated or spread out, or modulated by local initiatives or different spatial characteristics. As well as being a knowledge tool, the study also provided a basis for negotiations with the province of Zuid-Holland. A reduction in wind generation to 225 MW was achieved, with the addition of photovoltaic panels and biogas from farming. At provincial level, this landscape document has fed into the planning and urban development documents Structural Vision of Space and Mobility (2014), and at municipal level the Structural Vision of Wind Energy in Goeree-Overflakkee (2014), as well as the island’s zoning plan locating wind farms on the basis of various criteria. The principle adopted was to group the wind turbines together and to alternate solid and empty areas to maintain unobstructed views of the horizon. Locating the wind farms on the island’s shores meant that they were further away from the inhabited centre, while at the same time highlighting the land-water boundary on which the island’s history has been built.

The territorial energy strategy, a new tool for linking landscape and energy

As part of the 2019 National Climate Agreement, a national programme for a regional energy strategy [Regionale Energie Strategieën] (RES) has been introduced in the Netherlands. Supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Association of Provinces IPO, the Association of Municipalities VNG, the Union of Water Boards, and network operators, this programme prescribes the development of energy strategies in the thirty territories that make up the Netherlands. Each territory must play its part in the production of renewable electricity, the transition of heating systems in buildings and energy storage. The national target is to produce at least 35 TWh of renewable electricity and reduce CO2 emissions by 49% by 2030.

Spatial qualities are explicitly taken into account in these regional strategies, even if the notion of landscape does not appear as such. The National Climate Agreement states that ‘the task facing the territory is complex and the spatial impact of the climate and energy transition will be considerable. It is precisely by localising and projecting climate ambitions that the social and spatial consequences and dilemmas become tangible’ (Klimaatakkoord 2019, p. 222). This is why ‘the provinces and municipalities are firmly committed to implementing regional strategies (qualitative and quantitative) in space’ (ibid., p. 223).

The territories must define the areas available to achieve their production targets and study their implementation in qualitative terms. This expression remains general and allusive. Does it mean aesthetic quality, environmental quality or both? The National Climate Agreement states that ‘spatial quality is more than beautiful and ugly; it ensures liveable cities and landscapes in which the broad challenges of climate and energy are combined with various other functions and meet the challenges of the living environment’. (Klimaatakkoord 2019, p. 78). The same document lists the spatial principles to be taken into account in accordance with the Territorial Energy Strategy (ibid., p. 180): the efficient and multiple use of space; the closest possible alignment between supply and demand for renewable electricity; combination with other objectives; strong attention to the specific spatial quality of the area. These principles essentially deal with the project in space. They emphasise that taking into account the different functions of sites can improve the efficiency of energy systems by creating synergies between sectors, for example by locating production facilities close to consumption areas. The issue of available surface area is crucial in the Netherlands because of its high population density, and remains a challenge if energy targets are to be met. It is therefore essential to combine the quantitative approach with work on spatial and even landscape quality, to guarantee a pleasant living environment.

However, the notion of spatial quality is vague and lacks precise criteria to guide future projects. The province of Zuid-Holland has therefore commissioned the landscape consultancy H+N+S to draw up a specific report Spatial quality, province of Zuid-Holland. Exercise book (2020). In it, the landscape architects specify that the notion of spatial quality is not measurable but can be analysed on the basis of three concepts: form, function and time. Function incorporates the fact that the project must be effective from both a social and environmental point of view. Time emphasises that the project must be sustainable to last for a long time. For its part, form goes beyond the question of the pure beauty of the composition; it incorporates the value of the cultural experience in the specific context of national history. The territory of the Netherlands has been marked by ingenuity and daring in order to gain new space on the sea. The risk of flooding activates survival reflexes, leading to the invention of socially and culturally accepted responses. Based on the constraints of the energy transition, new landscapes need to be invented and thought through. Several provinces have developed projects based on this notion of spatial quality. Its definition and theoretical objectives remain somewhat ambiguous, raising questions about its possible differences and similarities with the notion of landscape, depending on how it is defined.

The fact remains that in the Netherlands, landscapes are now being designed to meet the challenges of the real world. To this end, landscape architects and engineers are thinking about new types of space.

The territorial energy strategy in Goeree-Overflakkee

The local authorities in Goeree-Overflakkee were among the first to commission a consortium of architects, landscape architects, town planners and engineers to implement a local energy strategy. In the document Energy production in Goeree-Overflakkee. Scenarios for a sustainable energy supply to 2030, 2017, three proposals deal with the energy mix, reducing consumption and optimising flows, including the renovation of buildings and transport infrastructure. Based on an in-depth analysis of the topography and the history of land use, the proposed map shows the energy production and conservation measures envisaged. A photomontage helps to visualise the landscape resulting from these choices. The local institutions on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee were particularly interested in the third scenario, entitled ‘conversion’, which clearly assumes its aim of productive performance by proposing to install large-scale and small-scale renewable energy systems in residential areas and on individual buildings. The insistent presence of this equipment is giving rise to so many new energy landscapes that will produce surpluses used to manufacture hydrogen in a power station located in the polder. Driven by a strong desire to innovate, the municipality has signed a framework agreement at national and provincial level to launch this experiment. The local area’s renewable energy surplus will enable it to export green hydrogen to Rotterdam and its port. The local energy strategy is also the basis for the application of the new Environment and Planning Act, which came into force in January 2024 and changes the content and process of the Dutch planning system. The example of Goeree-Overflakkee shows that each time energy objectives have been set for this area, local institutions have launched spatial and landscape studies to better reflect and interpret them. Accompanying the negotiations and providing a clearer spatial vision for future developments, these studies have prepared the way for decision-making.

Cross-referencing with the French situation and future developments

This presentation of the case of the Netherlands shows similarities and major differences with France in terms of the way in which the landscape is taken into account in the energy transition process. In both countries, there is support at national institutional level for ensuring the link between energy transition and landscape. In France, this is demonstrated by the ENSP’s Landscape and Energy Chair created in 2015 and the calls for projects for landscape and energy transition plans since 2019, co-financed by ADEME, which invite local authorities to think jointly about landscape and energy transition. These plans are not defined as compulsory, but remain voluntary initiatives. In the Netherlands, on the other hand, the importance attached to bringing the two subjects together is reflected in the fact that all local authorities are required to implement a territorial energy strategy, which is therefore mandatory, leading to 100% of local authorities being covered by spatial quality energy objectives, if not clearly landscape objectives. These documents also call for a start to be made on the issues of energy sobriety, albeit still in a timid manner. Renewable energy production technologies, visible in the landscape, will be all the more insistent or, on the contrary, discreet depending on whether or not we are able to adopt energy-saving measures. In terms of both housing and transport, sobriety remains one of the major challenges of the years to come, requiring a profound restructuring of the way we plan, design and live in our territories, our towns and their landscapes.

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