Ahead of the launch of the Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge 2015, a sector-wide study was performed in November 2014 among more than 200 water professionals in Australia. The results show strong support for the knowledge exchange partnership with the Netherlands on flood and drought management.
No less than 79% of the Australian respondents judge the partnership with the Netherlands to be valuable or very valuable.
The study further reveals that governance, government leadership and community resilience are considered to be the most critical challenges for Australia in dealing with future floods and droughts.
The respondents expect that the Dutch water sector can add most value in the areas of governance and flood management.
The other way around, the Australians believe they can support the Netherlands with their expertise on drought management and disaster preparedness and response.
The market study was performed under the umbrella of the Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge and follows on the heels of an intensive year of activities and exchanges between Australia and the Netherlands within the framework of the PIB Water Australia – a 3-year covenant between the Dutch government and a consortium consisting of Royal HaskoningDHV, Deltares, UNESCO-IHE, Fugro, Dutchdam, Van Oord, Witteveen & Bos, Hydrologic, Holland Water Challenge and NWP.
Says Paul Hart, Principal Flood and Water Management Consultant of Royal HaskoningDHV Australia: “Flood risk management organisations and practitioners are benefiting greatly from the genuine collaboration and knowledge exchange between Australia and The Netherlands. The enhanced pool of knowledge and expertise is benefiting many individual projects in Australia ranging from new State-wide guidance on levees to world leading hydrological modelling of the Brisbane River. Ongoing collaboration between the two countries can only help increase community flood resilience in Australia and The Netherlands”.
Several project features, such as the Brisbane River Flood Study, FloodReadyQ Smartphone App for Flood Warning Dissemination, the Community of Practice on Integrated Flood Risk Management and the Australia-Netherlands Water Challenge can be found on the Australia page of dutchwatersector.com: http://www.dutchwatersector.com/solutions/countries/61.html.
