Offered: NVM Agricultural & Rural
'Great expertise will be required from appraisers'
Long dry periods followed by downpours. Climate change has major consequences for the foundations of buildings in rural areas. The Real Estate Academy (AVV) is therefore organizing the Agricultural and Rural Valuation Day 2023, with special attention to groundwater.
Engineer Dick De Jong, senior foundation approach advisor at KCAF and keynote speaker in Hoevelaken, will provide an insight into the challenges for groundwater management in the countryside. "The subsidence is even happening twice as fast as expected."
Uneven composition
The Dutch struggle with water is entering a new chapter. Thanks to the fluctuations in the weather, a record number of rural homes and commercial buildings are experiencing foundation problems. "We have a very uneven composition of the soil in the Netherlands. We always thought that building on sand is safe, but the layer underneath was not taken into account. What we see now is when the groundwater level drops, the peat or clay layer underneath dries up, causing the soil to settle and then become too hard to properly drain the water during extreme precipitation."
The consequences of these developments are visible throughout the country, says De Jong. "Rural real estate built before 1970 is particularly affected. And not just buildings on wooden stilts, as was previously the case."
Explosive increase
Reports to the KCAF, a foundation whose objective is to collect, develop and make available knowledge regarding the approach and prevention of foundation problems, have increased explosively in recent years. "It is often about sea level rise. But subsidence of the soil is a much bigger problem."
If policy remains unchanged, it is estimated that more than half a million buildings in the Netherlands will experience foundation problems. "This has major consequences for appraisers," says De Jong. "After all, the problems are often barely visible with the naked eye."
Expertise
The KCAF advisor explains that there are all kinds of tools available to help appraisers collect information: from the special KCAF app to a satellite photo or a facade scan. "Great expertise will be required from appraisers," De Jong notes.
Would you like to know more about how appraisers can cope with this new reality? Then come to the Valuation Day in Hoevelaken on December 8.
Compensation
In addition to foundation problems, other facets of the groundwater level will also be discussed on the Valuation Day. Niels Crooijmans, environmental and environmental lawyer at Goorts + Coppens, will speak about compensation as a result of changes in the groundwater level and Roel van Gerwen, program coordinator of the Veenweiden Innovation Program Netherlands (VIP-NL), will talk about raising the groundwater level as a measure against land subsidence and greenhouse gas emissions from peat meadows.
The AVV organizes the Valuation day in collaboration with the NVM Agricultural & Rural department. The day ends with a pleasant networking drink.
