Open space is of vital importance. Numerous current challenges come together in the open space: climate change, water quality, food production, renewable energy, biodiversity, etc. A new method is needed to meet these complex challenges.

The publication Operation Open Space (date) outlines the contours of such a new, active and integrated approach to open space in Flanders. It argues for an ‘action program’. This method tackles large scale urgent issues as a multitude of smaller, ‘manageable’ projects. A ‘program operation’ identifies ‘recurring’ or very similar problems that occur in many different places in Flanders. For each ‘family of issues’ we forge coalitions between services of the Flemish government, local authorities and private actors. Thanks to the program operation, we avoid the one-off nature of the ‘pilot project’. It is a lever to achieve an accelerated implementation and a necessary multiplication of concrete projects in the field.

This publication is a publication of the Open Space Platform, an initiative of the Flemish Land Agency, Architecture Workroom Brussels, the Environmental Department, the Association of Flemish Provinces and the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities. In 2017 we launched a call for the realization of a first program, Water + Land + Scape, in which we tackle water issues in rural and agricultural areas in Flanders in fourteen places simultaneously. Other programs are being prepared.