Vecht (NL)/Vechte (DE)

About the demonstrator

River basin: Vecht (NL)/Vechte (DE)
Demonstrator lead: University of Twente (NL)

Key implementers:
- Regional Water Authority Vechtstromen
- Municipality of Hardenberg
- Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim
- VechteVerband
- Naturschutzschiftung Bentheim

The Vecht River Basin is a transboundary lowland river system shared between the Netherlands and Germany, home to more than two million people. The basin is characterised by rural landscapes interspersed with medium-sized cities and is highly valued for recreation, tourism, agriculture and nature.

Historically, the river and its valley were heavily modified, aiming to ‘get rid of water quickly’. Extensive drainage of peatlands, canalisation and straightening of the river, and reduction of floodplains significantly reduced the basin’s natural water retention capacity. With climate change, flood risk has intensified: water from rainfall travels very fast through the basin. While droughts present a new challenge for the area, with base flows being very low during dry summers.

Key challenges

Flood risk due to rapid runoff and limited retention capacity.
Increasing droughts and water scarcity, particularly in summer.
Poor water quality linked to nutrient and agrochemical runoff.
Loss of natural floodplains, peatlands and wetlands.
Differences in governance and water management traditions in Germany and the Netherlands

Sponge measure implementation in the Vecht/e

Naturschutzstiftung Grafschaft Bentheim (DE)

Rewetting of grassland
Rewetting of forest areas
Rewetting of meadow bird sanctuaries

Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim (DE)

Weirs and trench bottom ramps in agricultural area
Floodplain restoration

Vechteverband (DE)

Weirs and trench bottom ramps in agricultural area

Gemeente Hardenberg (NL)

Climate resilient bicycle route

Waterschap Vechtstromen (NL)

Weirs in agricultural area
Renaturing Vechte river bank

Demonstrator Goals

Τhe Vecht demonstrator aims to support a transition towards a more sponge-like river basin, where water is retained in soils, groundwater, rivers and landscapes for longer, helping to buffer both floods and droughts.

This includes:

Restoring natural retention capacity of rivers and floodplains.
Rewetting peatlands, forests and grasslands.
Retaining water in agricultural areas through small-scale measures like weirs.
Integrating sponge measures into urban climate adaptation.
Strengthening transboundary cooperation and shared learning.

Progress so far

Stakeholders and the process:

Highly successful kick-off with more than 50 participants.
Landscape strategy co-creation meetings starting in Oct. 2025
Citizen engagement has started through the launch of a participatory GIS survey.

Physical sponge measures:

9 measures started; 1217 hectares work in progress
Climate resilient bicycle route completed in Hardenberg Municipality

The work builds on long-standing initiatives such as ‘Room for the Vecht’ and contributes to the development of an updated, climate-resilient sponge strategy for the entire basin.

“Our long term vision in to create a robust water system that can handle the problems itself: that can ‘anticipate’ more or less water and adapt. For that, we need also the ‘sponge’.”