Risk-based maintenance and inspection of riverine flood defence systems

The condition of flood defence revetments is influenced by many different degradation processes such as animal burrowing, rutting and growth of weeds. Many of these processes are shock-based rather than progressive continuous. As shocks can cause a drop in performance, this means that the condition of a revetment can suddenly decrease,...

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...

An analytical process-based approach to predicting breach width in levees constructed from dilatant soils

An accurate prediction of the breach widening rate after the onset of a levee failure is essential for flood risk assessments. Current state-of-the-art analytical breach growth relations are empirical in nature. The large variety in loading conditions, levee design, and levee construction material, combined with the limited amount of accurate...

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,...