Based on the results of recent studies a renewed vision for flood risk management in Flanders took shape under the name of multi-layered water safety. The multi-layered water safety aims at reducing flood risk to a socially and economically acceptable level through an optimal mix of protective, preventive and preparedness measures, in which all actors in flood risk management face up to their responsibility. A new approach to develop a flood risk action plan based on the vision of multi-layered water safety was applied to the pilot case of the catchment of the Maarkebeek. Using a methodology based on quantitative economic as well as social risk values, potential measures are assessed taking climate change and land use projections into account. Measures and combinations that have a positive (or marginally but acceptable negative) cost-benefit ratio and a large social benefit are retained. These serve as a starting point for the debate on flood risk management with all the actors and for the consultation of the stakeholders. As a result of several actor meetings a ‘river contract’ was drafted. The river contract is a commitment of all actors to realise the listed measures, securing the collaborative effect. The river contract is an integrated response to the flood risk problem at catchment scale and aims at providing solutions to all affected households. This approach, applying multi-layered water safety to a local river catchment, combines an objective model-based assessment with intense stakeholder deliberation resulting in a widely accepted and objectively effective action plan i.e. the river contract, to manage flood risk in an efficient and sustainable way