One of the key challenges in managing the Kleine Nete river is finding a way to effectively communicate with water users about the importance of preserving its ecosystem, rather than resorting to a kayak ban.
Today's Partner: Flanders Environment Agency
What is your objective within Connected River?
The Kleine Nete is a clean but vulnerable river in Flanders, with strict Water Framework and Habitats Directives. However this area is also very popular for canoeing and kayaking. So we need to create a balance in which we can we keep the Kleine Nete clean and safe for aquatic life in combination with recreational use of the river.
How did you involve end-users and what was their response?
At the start of the project, we focused on defining the various stakeholders and their needs within their pilot project. This resulted in a broad stakeholder matrix. These stakeholders were are all invited to participate in a series of workshops. These workshops started at the beginning of 2024 and are still ongoing. In each workshop we have representatives of kayak rental organisation, nature organisations, local municipalities, sports federations and of course water managers. In these workshops in which we discuss the challenges and possible solutions for various issues in the pilot area. Each workshop we elaborate on finding common ground for acceptable and executable solutions.
What were the results (output & outcome)?
As a first result we wanted to have an overview on how many people are actually kayaking and canoeing on the Kleine Nete. Therefore we installed temporary sensors on 2 places facing the Kleine Nete. Furthermore we will create some subgroups where stakeholders can elaborate on a few solutions to implement in the next months (by the start of the next kayaking season) such as collecting waste, visible elements that show when it is allowed to kayak/canoe or not, parking issues.
What are the lessons learned?
It takes quite some time to get the right permits and consent to place the sensors due to privacy and administrative regulations. Then it also takes some time to implement the right settings for the machine learning algorithm to recognize the right patterns. This means that we already have a good idea of the number of people kayaking and canoeing but not yet for an entire season. With the knowledge we have now, we should be able to do this for the season in 2025.