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Damage due to floods has increased during the last few decades, and further increases are expected in several regions due to climate change and growing vulnerability. To address the projected increase in flood risk, a combination of structural and non-structural flood risk mitigation measures is considered as a promising adaptation strategy. Such a combination takes into account that flood defence systems may fail, and prepares for unexpected crisis situations via land-use planning and private damage reduction, e.g. via building precautionary measures, and disaster response. However, knowledge about damage-reducing measures is scarce and often fragmented since based on case studies. For instance, it is believed that private precautionary measures, like shielding with water shutters or building fortification, are especially effective in areas with frequent flood events and low flood water levels. However, some of these measures showed a significant damage-reducing effect also during the extreme flood event in 2002 in Germany. This review analyses potentials of land-use planning and private flood precautionary measures as components of adaptation strategies for global change. Focus is on their implementation, their damage-reducing effects and their potential contribution to address projected changes in flood risk, particularly in developed countries.

In oktober 2011 heeft de Europese Commissie Aanbeveling Inzake de Definitie van Nanomateriaal vastgesteld. Het RIVM beschouwt deze definitie als een goede basis voor verdere discussie. De discussie zou zich vooral moeten richten op twee uitgangspunten van de definitie: de grenzen voor de afmeting van nanodeeltjes (van 1 tot 100 nanometer), en de eis voor nanomaterialen dat minimaal 50 procent van de deeltjes binnen de gestelde afmeting voor nanodeeltjes vallen. Volgens het RIVM kan wetenschappelijk onderzoek helpen om implicaties van de keuzes van deze uitgangspunten in te schatten. Verder is het van belang om betrouwbare en gestandaardiseerde methoden te hebben om de aantallen nanodeeltjes en de grootte ervan te kunnen meten. De Europese Commissie zal de definitie herzien in 2014 in het licht van de ervaringen en de wetenschappelijke en technologische ontwikkelingen. Inzicht in potentiële risico's van belang: De laatste jaren is een toenemend aantal toepassingen en producten beschikbaar gekomen waarin of waarvoor nanomaterialen worden gebruikt. Vanwege de geringe afmeting van de deeltjes hebben ze andere eigenschappen dan materialen met grotere deeltjes. Een eenduidige definitie is een belangrijke stap om de term 'nanomateriaal' voor Europese wet- en regelgeving vast te stellen. Het uiteindelijk doel van de definitie is om de potentiële risico's van nanomaterialen voor mens en milieu te beheersen. Nu de definitie van een nanomateriaal nader is bepaald, is de volgende stap om deze in te passen in de diverse kaders van wet- en regelgeving. Dan kan ook worden vastgesteld voor welke typen nanomaterialen specifieke maatregelen nodig zijn om te kunnen waarborgen dat ze op een veilige manier worden geproduceerd en toegepast. Deeltjes buiten definitie: niet automatisch veilig: Het RIVM onderschrijft het uitgangspunt van de Commissie dat een nanomateriaal niet automatisch als gevaarlijk moet worden beschouwd. Tegelijkertijd benadrukt het instituut dat materialen met deeltjes die buiten de definitie vallen, niet automatisch als veilig moeten worden beschouwd. Zo kunnen materialen met deeltjes die net buiten de limieten vallen toch een risico vormen afhankelijk van de blootstelling van mens en milieu.

Planning for delta areas happens amid uncertainty, which may influence the location, type and form of interventions such as infrastructure, spatial strategies and design standards. Interventions, however, may fix the spatial configuration for decades, for which insight in the appropriate use of adaptiveness to account for uncertainty is essential. This thesis explores uncertainty and adaptiveness in spatial planning and studies their expression and empirical manifestation in planning approaches, planning tools and planning processes. Uncertainty’s characteristics are used to distill information about the (in)adequacy of specific interventions and are related to three domains of adaptiveness: adaptive management, adaptive capacity and adaptive planning. The thesis shows that while some uncertainties demand interventions aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of planning while anticipating future change, others require a focus on the planning process by the co-construction of knowledge, deliberating about values and increasing the adaptive capacity of actors and institutions.

In this paper Californian Adaptive Management (AM) and Dutch Adaptive Delta Management (ADM) are compared. The concepts are introduced in a policy context to deal with prevailing types of uncertainty in water management in the Californian Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Dutch Rhine-Meuse Delta respectively. While having the same objective, we show that adaptive management in these Deltas differs considerably, because the concepts address different uncertainties. Californian AM is primarily applied to ecosystem management while Dutch ADM is primarily developed for flood risk management and fresh water supply purposes. Californian AM is based on modeling the performance of different actions. It emphasizes that, once management actions are selected, formal and continuous learning is required to deal with uncertain effects and effectiveness of management actions. Thus it reacts on present states in a continuous fashion as adequately and flexible as possible. In contrary Dutch ADM anticipates on possible futures through projections of climate change and socio-economic circumstances. Different sets of measures to avoid or postpone projected problems are developed. In ADM uncertainty in projections is recognized, and possible rejection of projections over time is acknowledged. For climatic and socio-economic circumstances ADM aims to ensure that alternative adaptation pathways can still be opted. We argue that good Delta management should be based on long term projections, as in Dutch ADM, and scientific learning from implemented actions, as in Californian AM. A hybrid of both concepts can thus be created in order to strengthen adaptive management practice in the face of future uncertainty.

In september 2015 ontving het Kenniscentrum Leefomgeving van Saxion het verzoek van woningcorporatie Welbions om een onderzoek uit te voeren naar de leefbaarheid van het woningcomplex van Welbions aan de Theresiastraat te Hengelo. De Theresiastraat is een bijzonder complex flatwoningen, met een hoog percentage bewoners uit bijzondere doelgroepen zoals ex-verslaafden en ex-gedetineerden. Welbions besteedt veel tijd aan het beheer van dit complex, maar desondanks komen relatief veel klachten over de leefbaarheid bij Welbions binnen. Welbions beschikt niet over een nauwkeurig beeld van de precieze problemen, de spreiding over de verschillende gebouwen binnen het complex en de doelgroepen die voornamelijk hinder ondervinden. Dat beeld moest uit het onderzoek van Saxion komen, vergezeld van een advies voor de aanpak van de gebleken problemen.In september 2015 is een groep studenten van Saxion in het kader van de minor Sociaal Veilig Ontwerpen aan de slag gegaan met deze opdracht. De supervisie werd uitgevoerd door docent-onderzoeker dr. Harm Jan Korthals Altes. In januari 2016 heeft de groep studenten het conceptrapport opgeleverd en gepresenteerd aan de opdrachtgever. De rapportage en de onderliggende databestanden die de studenten hebben geproduceerd, vormde in hoofdzaak de input voor de voorliggende rapportage van het Kenniscentrum Leefomgeving; tevens zijn de reacties die we bij de eindpresentatie hebben gekregen in het rapport verwerkt.

Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL)-producing bacteria have become increasingly common in animals and humans. The goal of the presented ESBL evaluation framework is to help policy makers to evaluate the effectiveness of possible interventions aimed to reduce ESBL levels in livestock. An objective-driven ESBL policy approach (i.e., setting more clear and stringent objectives, for example maximum ESBL prevalence on national level) is preferable since much is unknown about other potential relevant measures and moreover the accountability of individual agents is hampered, which are both requisites for a measure-driven policy approach. In addition, for the nearby future, an additional measure is to extend the ban on some other antibiotics that are related to ESBLs.

Geen samenvatting aanwezig.

Geen samenvatting aanwezig.

De laatste decennia kent de Nederlandse flora een sterke toename van exoten. Soorten die door een sterke uitbreiding of verdichting van hun areaal overlast veroorzaken, worden invasieve soorten genoemd. De overlast van invasieve soorten (vaak kortweg invasieven genoemd) kan bestaan uit economische schade en gezondheids- en/of veiligheidsproblemen. Het Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit heeft daarom het Uitvoeringsconsortium Invasieve Plantensoorten een FES‑subsidie verleend om in vier jaar tijd een informatiesysteem over potentieel invasieve exotische plantensoorten op te zetten. Doel is informatie aan te leveren op basis waarvan ingeschat kan worden hoe groot de kans is dat exotische soorten zich bij introductie in Nederland invasief zullen gaan gedragen. Daarnaast is het doel hulp te bieden bij het herkennen van zulke soorten als ze worden geïmporteerd. Het informatiesysteem is ondergebracht in Q-bank.

Artikel gebaseerd op het proefschrift van Dr J.M.M. Neuvel

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the importance of socio-cultural factors in risk management and the need to incorporate these factors in a standard, internationally recognized (wto) framework. This was achieved by analysing the relevance of these factors in 3 casesThe purpose of this article is to illustrate the importance of socio-cultural factors in risk management and the need to incorporate these factors in a standard, internationally recognized (WTO) framework. This was achieved by analysing the relevance of these factors in three cases. It can be concluded that the pre-eminent role of science in food-related regulatory decisions is debatable. At a risk management level, other factors, such as cultural, social, or economic issues, are often more important than scientific advice in determining policy. There is a need for transparency at an international level as trade barriers are gradually being removed and these other factors arc becoming more apparent. Therefore it is important that all the factors implicated in the food safety policy-making process are recognized in a standard framework.

Hazard surveillance in livestock production chains is an essential activity that is usually conducted by surveillance organizations. Its importance has been highlighted by the major crises that occurred in the field of livestock production and food safety during the last decades. Although extensive research has been conducted to achieve surveillance improvement in livestock production chains, they have limitations in terms of coverage of economic aspects and in the level of detail in modelling the interactions between hazard dynamics and surveillance activities. Hence, the dissertation aims to (1) improve the understanding of hazard surveillance in livestock production chains from an economic perspective, and (2) to apply the obtained knowledge for better model-based in-depth analysis of livestock hazard surveillance. In this thesis, we first presents a conceptual framework for the economic analysis of single-hazard surveillance systems in livestock production chains which differs from most of the previous research focusing on the technical aspect of livestock hazard surveillance. We conclude that that the conceptual approach is scientifically credible for economic analysis of single-hazard surveillance systems and that the applicability of the approach critically depends on data availability. Then we present a conceptual framework for the economic optimization of a surveillance- portfolio consisting of multiple livestock hazards to survey. This framework applies the portfolio perspective to investigate the surveillance resource allocation problem, which is beyond the state of art that mainly focuses on single hazard surveillance analyses. The credibility and practicability of the framework were also checked. To demonstrate the usefulness of the developed frameworks, two case studies are conducted. We applied the single-hazard surveillance framework to conduct a comprehensive economic analysis of classical swine fever (CSF) surveillance in the Netherlands. The results of the cost-effectiveness analysis show that the alternative surveillance setups with “PCR on rendered animals” are effective for the moderately virulent CSF strain, whereas the surveillance setups with “routine serology in slaughterhouses” or “routine serology on sow farms” are effective for the low virulent strain. Moreover, the current CSF surveillance system in the Netherlands is cost-effective for both moderately virulent and low virulent CSF strains. The results of the cost-benefit analysis for the moderately virulent CSF strain indicate that the current surveillance system in the Netherlands is adequate. From an economic perspective, there is little to be gained from intensifying surveillance. We also applied the surveillance-portfolio analysis framework to conduct economic optimization of a pig-hazard surveillance-portfolio, consisting of five pig-related hazards, in a Dutch food company. We draw the conclusion that surveillance organizations need to use a portfolio perspective to guide their surveillance resource allocation. This is because the case clearly shows that arbitrarily allocating surveillance resource can cause efficiency losses (either in terms of higher surveillance costs or low SP performance).

Hazard surveillance in livestock production chains is an essential activity that is usually conducted by surveillance organizations. Its importance has been highlighted by the major crises that occurred in the field of livestock production and food safety during the last decades. Although extensive research has been conducted to achieve surveillance improvement in livestock production chains, they have limitations in terms of coverage of economic aspects and in the level of detail in modelling the interactions between hazard dynamics and surveillance activities. Hence, the dissertation aims to (1) improve the understanding of hazard surveillance in livestock production chains from an economic perspective, and (2) to apply the obtained knowledge for better model-based in-depth analysis of livestock hazard surveillance. In this thesis, we first presents a conceptual framework for the economic analysis of single-hazard surveillance systems in livestock production chains which differs from most of the previous research focusing on the technical aspect of livestock hazard surveillance. We conclude that that the conceptual approach is scientifically credible for economic analysis of single-hazard surveillance systems and that the applicability of the approach critically depends on data availability. Then we present a conceptual framework for the economic optimization of a surveillance- portfolio consisting of multiple livestock hazards to survey. This framework applies the portfolio perspective to investigate the surveillance resource allocation problem, which is beyond the state of art that mainly focuses on single hazard surveillance analyses. The credibility and practicability of the framework were also checked. To demonstrate the usefulness of the developed frameworks, two case studies are conducted. We applied the single-hazard surveillance framework to conduct a comprehensive economic analysis of classical swine fever (CSF) surveillance in the Netherlands. The results of the cost-effectiveness analysis show that the alternative surveillance setups with “PCR on rendered animals” are effective for the moderately virulent CSF strain, whereas the surveillance setups with “routine serology in slaughterhouses” or “routine serology on sow farms” are effective for the low virulent strain. Moreover, the current CSF surveillance system in the Netherlands is cost-effective for both moderately virulent and low virulent CSF strains. The results of the cost-benefit analysis for the moderately virulent CSF strain indicate that the current surveillance system in the Netherlands is adequate. From an economic perspective, there is little to be gained from intensifying surveillance. We also applied the surveillance-portfolio analysis framework to conduct economic optimization of a pig-hazard surveillance-portfolio, consisting of five pig-related hazards, in a Dutch food company. We draw the conclusion that surveillance organizations need to use a portfolio perspective to guide their surveillance resource allocation. This is because the case clearly shows that arbitrarily allocating surveillance resource can cause efficiency losses (either in terms of higher surveillance costs or low SP performance).

This thesis focuses on quality and safety management of tropical shrimp (Penaeus spp.) using Benin (West Africa) as an example of a shrimp exporting country. The entire supply chain, from fishing areas (brackish waters) to shrimp processing plants, was investigated. The steps of the chain prior to shrimp processing at the freezer plants were critical for shrimp quality and safety because of prevailing temperature abuse and inappropriate hygienic conditions. Combining culture-dependent (plate counts) and culture independent (DGGE, clone libraries analysis) approaches, it was found that bacterial concentration in shrimps was higher than that of their surrounding water and sediment. Conversely, bacterial diversity was higher in water or sediment than in shrimps. At species level, distinct bacterial communities were associated with sediment, water or shrimp samples. Spoilage evaluation of shrimps showed that during storage at 0ºC, Pseudomonas spp. were dominant, whereas at 7ºC and 28ºC, H2S-producing bacteria were the dominant group of microorganisms. An empirical model predicting shrimp shelf-life as a function of constant storage temperature was developed. Isolates producing strong off-odor were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing as mainly lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and Enterobacteriaceae at 28ºC or 7ºC and Pseudomonas spp. and LAB (Carnobacterium maltaromaticum) at 0ºC. The fastest growing isolates namely, Pseudomonas psychrophila and C. maltaromaticum were selected for their spoilage activity and for modeling studies. P. psychrophila had a higher growth rate and a higher spoilage activity at 0 to 15ºC, while at 28ºC, C. maltaromaticum had a higher growth rate. Models predicting the growth of pseudomonads in shrimps as a function of temperature were constructed. These models were validated under dynamic storage temperatures simulating actual temperature fluctuation in the supply chain. Using different risk classification approaches, the main foodborne pathogen risks identified were Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Salmonella. The management of the risks posed by the main pathogens was addressed using different scenarios to meet the set food safety objectives. Based on quantitative and ecological studies, this thesis developed tools that can be used in decision-making regarding tropical shrimp quality and safety management.

This thesis focuses on quality and safety management of tropical shrimp (Penaeus spp.) using Benin (West Africa) as an example of a shrimp exporting country. The entire supply chain, from fishing areas (brackish waters) to shrimp processing plants, was investigated. The steps of the chain prior to shrimp processing at the freezer plants were critical for shrimp quality and safety because of prevailing temperature abuse and inappropriate hygienic conditions. Combining culture-dependent (plate counts) and culture independent (DGGE, clone libraries analysis) approaches, it was found that bacterial concentration in shrimps was higher than that of their surrounding water and sediment. Conversely, bacterial diversity was higher in water or sediment than in shrimps. At species level, distinct bacterial communities were associated with sediment, water or shrimp samples. Spoilage evaluation of shrimps showed that during storage at 0ºC, Pseudomonas spp. were dominant, whereas at 7ºC and 28ºC, H2S-producing bacteria were the dominant group of microorganisms. An empirical model predicting shrimp shelf-life as a function of constant storage temperature was developed. Isolates producing strong off-odor were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing as mainly lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and Enterobacteriaceae at 28ºC or 7ºC and Pseudomonas spp. and LAB (Carnobacterium maltaromaticum) at 0ºC. The fastest growing isolates namely, Pseudomonas psychrophila and C. maltaromaticum were selected for their spoilage activity and for modeling studies. P. psychrophila had a higher growth rate and a higher spoilage activity at 0 to 15ºC, while at 28ºC, C. maltaromaticum had a higher growth rate. Models predicting the growth of pseudomonads in shrimps as a function of temperature were constructed. These models were validated under dynamic storage temperatures simulating actual temperature fluctuation in the supply chain. Using different risk classification approaches, the main foodborne pathogen risks identified were Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Salmonella. The management of the risks posed by the main pathogens was addressed using different scenarios to meet the set food safety objectives. Based on quantitative and ecological studies, this thesis developed tools that can be used in decision-making regarding tropical shrimp quality and safety management.