The Flanders Master plan
Integrated Coastal Master plan on how to control coastal flooding risks in Flanders in 2050

German/Danish Coastal Pilot Sites
Assessment of risk scenarios based on five different representative North Sea Region coastal types

Action 4: Towards a Flanders Master plan for
future coastal safety

This Safecoast action was executed by the Flanders Agency for
Maritime and Coastal Services and is involved with the development of a master plan for the protection of the Flemish coast against erosion and flooding on a short term (10 years) and long term basis (time horizon 2050). The total plan development envisaged will not be finished until 2010. In Safecoast part of the plan and strategy development has been executed, such as an international benchmark with other master plans.

Main aim
To plan for ways to reach and maintain an acceptable flood safety level for the Flanders coast, with a long term perspective (2050) while following the principles of ICZM.

How to make a master plan?
As part of the preparatory actions for the development of the Flanders coastal master plan an inventory and comparison was made of 6 different master plans for coastal safety from 4 countries along the North Sea (The Netherlands, Denmark, United Kingdom and Germany), in order to learn from the experience
and know-how of the other surrounding countries in setting up the Flanders master plan. For this purpose, the plans were compared on the basis of a number of characteristic features regarding their scope, set-up and contents.

Read the Safecoast report on developing the Flanders master plan here:

The steps to take
The present study for developing the Flanders master plan considers the following steps:
• Safety assessment of existing coastal protection systems.
• Flood risk calculations in order to produce flood risk maps for the present and future (2050) situation.
• Identification and analysis of different measures and alternatives for controlling present and future flood risks.
• Societal Cost Benefit Analysis to evaluate alternative master plans.
• Environmental Impact Assessment for the overall master plan and local plans extracted from the master plan.
• Identification of requirements related to the legal framework.
• Risk Management of realisation of safety measures (budget, timing, etc.).
• Communication to relevant parties and stakeholders and the public at large.

The main activities conducted within the Safecoast action were aimed at the preparation of the above steps in terms of the specification of methodological approaches; further development of required analytical tools; and collection of relevant data. This has resulted in the drafting of a preparatory report describing the operational approach to the development of the master plan.

The further preparation of the Master Plan is being undertaken by a taskforce comprising client authority and its contractors and a steering group of representatives from different sectors.  There is also an advisory board made up of representatives of all the important stakeholders including the public.