In the area of the Hoeksche Waard is a polder in the South of the province of Zuid-Holland in the Netherlands. Green-blue veining is a network of vegetation and water (green and blue respectively) embedded within an agricultural area in order to create benefits for agriculture, nature and society as a whole. In agricultural landscapes, natural pest control is a way to achieve more sustainable and cleaner types of agricultural practices with less dependency upon pesticides. Green-blue veining also provides a number of other benefits, including enhancing the landscape quality of the countryside, increasing biodiversity and reducing the negative environmental impacts of current farming methods.

ECORYS was asked to make a cost benefit analysis of the interventions to create and develop the green-blue veining. The interventions consist of changes in agricultural management and the appropriate management if robust elements including creeks, dikes and roads.

The results showed that the benefits of green-blue veining outweigh the costs in the three different types of implementation that were studied. The scenario that gave the best net present value of the benefits was one in which the area is developed for recreation as well as farming and agrobiodiversity.