On peaks and politics; governance analysis of flood risk management cooperation between Germany and the Netherlands

Abstract Since many rivers do not confine themselves to one country, cross‐border cooperation is often required for optimisation of river management. Institutional conditions may either obstruct or motivate this cooperation. By describing the institutional conditions in terms of governance patterns a better understanding of the opportunities and pitfalls for cooperation is obtained. In this paper the cooperation between the Netherlands and Germany in the Rhine River basin serves as a case study. In the Rhine River basin the distribution of competencies over German actors and the threat of an imbalance herein were catalysts for cooperation at a regional level. For the Netherlands the potentially disastrous consequences of flooding and the resultant stringent standards for flood protection make it difficult to enforce Germany's moral commitment to the Netherlands’ flood protection.