Following the floods of summer 2021, a series of measures were launched by the Walloon government in terms of land use planning. Among these initiatives are two major studies. The first, the study of “sustainable neighbourhood (re)development programmes”, responds to the urgent need to repair the most damaged municipalities. Two multidisciplinary teams led by MS-A and Baumans-Deffet are rethinking the neighbourhoods of the Ourthe and Vesdre basins. The second study takes a long-term view, based on a vision of a resilient and supportive basin. Studio Paola Viganò, in partnership with the University of Liège and Yellow Window for communication, is contributing ambitious expertise to a “strategic plan for the Vesdre basin”.

MS-A and Baumans-Deffet would ideally have benefited from the results of the strategic plan before proposing concrete transformations. However, given the urgent need to take charge of these areas, they deserve credit for proposing concrete and direct action programmes. The two agencies in charge of the redevelopment programmes had the opportunity, through studies organised around the diagnoses and strategies of nine municipalities in the basin, to take a quick and accurate look at the consequences of the disaster. The acquisition of buildings located in problematic areas, the development of ecological riverbanks and the reconstruction of public housing are being financed, while several development plans are acting as trailblazers, paving the way for the transformations to be implemented.