Estimating the effect of assumed initial damage to the hydraulic stability of pattern-placed revetments on dikes using finite element modeling

Initial damage, caused by previous wave loading or other events, might affect the hydraulic stability of pattern-placed revetments. Three common types of damage are considered in this study. The effect of this assumed initial damage on the hydraulic stability and failure probability of revetments is quantified using a FEM model. This model is...

Optimal planning of flood defence system reinforcements using a greedy search algorithm

Climate change and deterioration require a continuous effort to reinforce flood defences and meet reliability requirements. To efficiently upgrade flood defence systems, insight in costs and benefits of measures at a system level is required throughout the process of planning and design. Due to the size of flood defence systems the number of...

Influence of Monitoring on Investment Planning of Flood Defence Systems

Many flood defences in the Netherlands will have to be reinforced in the coming decades. Many dikes do not fulfill the safety standard due to geotechnical failure modes, largely due to epistemic, reducible uncertainties. . The Value of Information is a measure to indicate beforehand whether an investment towards reducing epistemic uncertainty is...

Value of Information of Structural Health Monitoring in Asset Management of Flood Defences

One of the most rapidly emerging measures in infrastructure asset management is Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), which aims at reducing uncertainty in structural performance by using monitoring equipment. As earthen flood defence structures typically have large strength uncertainties, such techniques can be particularly promising. However,...

Large scale flood hazard analysis by including defence failures on the Dutch river system

To make informed flood risk management (FRM) decisions in large protected river systems, flood risk and hazard analyses should include the potential for dike breaching. 'Load interdependency' analyses attempt to include the system-wide effects of dike breaching while accounting for the uncertainty of both river loads and dike fragility. The...

Developments in the management of flood defences and hydraulic infrastructure in the Netherlands

This article highlights recent developments in flood risk management in the Netherlands and presents approaches for reliability analysis and asset management for flood defences and hydraulic infrastructure. The functioning of this infrastructure is of great importance for the country as large parts of it are prone to flooding. Based on a...

Influence of load interdependencies of flood defences on probabilities and risks at the Bovenrijn/IJssel area, The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, flood risk analysis is usually carried out for a location, without considering potential flood defence failures in upstream areas. This may result in significant over- or underestimation of flood risks. The effect of upstream failures on failure probabilities and flood risks in other areas is called load interdependence of...