Traditionally water infrastructure projects focused on a single functional requirement only, such as protection from flooding for a dike or accessibility for ports and waterways. Today, we realise that a dike is also a landscape element that can provide added value for the environment (e.g. habitat, diversity, productivity) as well as society (e.g. recreation, cultural). Similarly, ports and waterways are landscape elements, located at the highly dynamic interface of land and sea, that can provide opportunities for birds foraging/resting at tidal flats and embankments, or for migratory fish that travel between rivers and the ocean.

Approaching the project design process from a more holistic point of view generally influences the choice of the system boundaries and stakeholders to involve. This in turn can result in different types of solutions, which deliberately incorporate ecosystem benefits. For the dikes discussed here, this could lead to the implementation of more mildly sloped vegetated foreshores for wave height reduction rather than the harder and steeper dike reinforcements that are more traditionally used. For ports and waterways this can lead to accommodating more dynamics of tidal flats and channels in estuaries or the creation of habitats that provide shelter for migratory fish. The solutions thus obtained align better with the natural system and are likely more acceptable to stakeholders that find these aspects important.