A system perspective on flood risk in polder drainage canal systems

A major part of the Netherlands is prone to flooding: roughly 60%. Therefore, a large system of flood defences protects the country from flooding. These flood defences are divided into primary and regional flood defence systems. Primary flood defences protect areas against catastrophical flooding events from the sea, big lakes and major rivers,...

A pragmatic, performance-based approach to levee safety assessments

Flood prone areas are often protected against flooding by an extensive network of flood defenses. To ensure their structural integrity, these flood defenses are periodically assessed. Many levees have been functioning well for decades, and have survived several relatively high hydraulic loads within their lifetime. However, information on...

Overflow Tests on Grass-Covered Embankments at the Living Lab Hedwige-Prosperpolder: An Overview

In regions with a temperate climate, a well-maintained grass sod on a clay layer is considered a reliable protection for dams and dikes. In the Living Lab Hedwige-Prosperpolder, on the left bank of the Scheldt river straddling the border between Belgium and the Netherlands, a series of 27 overflow tests with a purpose-built overflow generator...

Hoogwater 2021: Feiten en Duiding

In juli 2021 zijn grote delen van Limburg getroffen door hevige regenval en overstromingen. Ook delen van België en Duitsland overstroomden met zeer veel schade en verlies aan mensenlevens tot gevolg. Dit betrof een extreme en ongeëvenaarde gebeurtenis met enorme impact. Daarom is naar aanleiding van de overstromingen deze verkenning uitgevoerd...

Dijkinspecties vanuit de ruimte: droom of werkelijkheid?

We hebben in Nederland ongeveer 20.000 km waterkeringen en het is kostbaar en tijdrovend om deze regelmatig fysiek te inspecteren. Met radarsatellieten wordt deformatie op meer plekken, vaker, en nauwkeuriger gemeten. Hierdoor kan het gedrag van keringen continu worden gemonitord en kan afwijkend gedrag vroegtijdig worden gedetecteerd. Deze...

Sub-seasonal Levee Deformation Observed Using Satellite Radar Interferometry to Enhance Flood Protection

Levees are critical in providing protection against catastrophic flood events, and thus require continuous monitoring. Current levee inspection methods rely on limited information obtained by visual inspection, resulting in infrequent, localized, mostly qualitative and subjective assessments. This hampers the timely detection of problematic...

Preliminary Results of the Safelevee Project

Improving model consistency and process realism in conceptual rainfall-runoff models

Hydrological models are used for several purposes, from reservoir management to stormflow prediction. However, their predictive power is often questionable. As most rainfall-runoff models are highly dependent on calibration, models often show deteriorated performance during the validation period. This is caused by too much focus on and trust in...