Cooperation with the USA on water
No matter how big or how small the country, water plays just as important a role in the Netherlands as it does in the United States. Rijkswaterstaat has a long tradition of working together with the USA to improve our water safety practices.
US Army Corps of Engineers
Rijkswaterstaat has been cooperating with the USACE for more than 100 years. The 2 organisations share an amazingly similar history, even with an ocean in between, and are well over 200 years old.
Since 2004, USACE and Rijkswaterstaat work together on numerous areas of shared interest under the umbrella of a MoU. This MoU was renewed in 2019.
Cooperation themes 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 R&D-related topics.
Since 2012 the UK Environment Agency has been cooperating on many of these themes as a result of the joint publication of the International levee handbook.
200 years of common history on water management
To find out more about our common history, see Water Resources Management.
Levee inspections
What makes a good levee? What criteria should be applied? What risks are involved and how do we communicate these risks to other stakeholders? Since 2017 the levee safety partnership under the USACE-Rijkswaterstaat MoU has been carrying levee test inspections using approaches developed in the USA, the UK and the Netherlands. It has been discussing and reviewing the methods and results obtained.
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 safeguard and restore South Florida’s water resources and ecosystems, protect their communities from flooding, and meet the region’s water needs while connecting with the public and stakeholders.
Rijkswaterstaat cooperates with the SFWM District on theme’s such as water emergency management, operational water management and adaptive planning.