A multifunctional answer to multiple questions: EPILOGUE

When the MFFD program took off in 2012, its general goal was to gain a deeper understanding of multifunctional flood defenses, in order to provide a solid foundation for their design, assessment and management. As a point of departure, it assumed that a new generation of explicitly multifunctional flood defenses was the product of a need to accommodate competing spatial claims, and, perhaps, contribute financial savings by combining functions. Flagship projects like the Scheveningen Boulevard and Katwijk’s ‘hybrid’ parking garage complement an older generation of multifunctional flood defenses, the traditional example being dikes with sheep grazing or a road on top. The contemporary multifunctional flood defense was viewed as a complex but desirable phenomenon: the answer to multiple needs, and therefore best studied from a multidisciplinary perspective.