Show that it works, lessons learned from facilitating building with nature experiments

In multi-actor governance systems, experimenting is believed to be essential to enhance the adaptive capacity by learning about alternatives. ‘Show that it works’ is an essential step en route to ‘make it happen’. The key challenge for innovators then becomes finding opportunities to show that it works. Building with nature is an innovative strategy for designing and developing projects at the interface between land and water. Its goal is to reconcile social-economic and ecological goals of water infrastructure project and especially to make productive use of the natural processes like wind, tide, current, waves as well as the interaction between the biotic and abiotic systems. The Ecoshape Building with Nature program organized several pilot projects in the Eastern Scheldt, South Holland coast and lake IJssel in the Netherlands as well as abroad to show that building with nature works. These experiments all came with substantial and uncertain impacts on the physical environment and/or were embedded in political sensitive plans and are- as. So connecting to the relevant agendas, finding support, concerting actors and resources present key issues for success.