Chapter 5 The politics of framing scales, ambiguity and uncertainty: flood interventions in the Netherlands Jeroen Warner, Philippus Wester, Martinus Vink, Art Dewulf Introduction Safety from floods has significant discursive power in the low-lying, densely-populated, Netherlands. The combination of public concern and governmental awareness has led to a search for new and innovative flood interventions. These new interventions have, however, at times created temporal and spatial ambiguity, as the scale of social and technical interventions – and their costs and benefits - is far from settled. In these controversies, the framing of spatial and temporal scales has been an important strategy, linking water management to a changing climate as a looming crisis (Deltacommissie 2008, Verduijn et al. 2011, Vink et al. 2013; Boezeman et al. 2013; Dewulf 2013). Scale frames can be understood as sense-making devices for understanding reality and organising action (cf. Van Lieshout et al. 2011; Termeer et al. 2010). By framing, actors portray their understanding of what ‘is’ at stake, as well as a normative stance on what ‘ought to be’ (Schön and Rein 1994). Through language, actors often interactively select or emphasise issues that point towards a certain problem definition, or moral standpoint, implying certain solutions (Entman 1993; Dewulf et al. 2009). We will focus on the framing and counter-framing occurring in the context of controversial flood policy in the Netherlands. These policies are situated at the intersection of global climate change