Bed level change in the Upper Rhine Delta and Niederrhein

The Rhine reach comprising the Niederrhein and the Upper Rhine Delta is characterized by a long history of engineering interventions. The area is densely populated and the Rhine, the main inland waterway in Europe, justifying the need for such measures. Interventions have had a strong impact on morphodynamic channel characteristics. We use bed...

Assessment of the functional performance of lowland river systems subjected to climate change and large-scale morphological trends

Worldwide, rivers provide important socio-economic and environmental functions and are essential to human well-being. The growing demand of user-functions and the change in river conditions due to large-scale morphology and climate change, increase the pressure on lowland river systems (e.g. Rhine, Meuse, Danube and Mississippi). To ensure a...

Assessing safety of nature-based flood defenses: Dealing with extremes and uncertainties

Vegetated foreshores adjacent to engineered structures (so-called hybrid flood defenses), are considered to have high potential in reducing flood risk, even in the face of sea level rise and increasing storminess. However, foreshores such as salt marshes and mangrove forests are generally characterized by relatively strong temporal and...

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...

Flow patterns around longitudinal training dams

With the intention to reduce the negative  effects of ongoing bed erosion, as well as to  improve several other river functions such as  protection against floods, provision of safe and  efficient navigation and ecology, a ‘pilot project  longitudinal training dams’ was initiated. The  training dams have recently...

Nature-based flood protection: Using vegetated foreshores for reducing coastal risk

Vegetated foreshores such as salt marshes, mangrove forests and reed fields can reduce wave loads on coastal dikes due to depth-induced wave breaking and wave attenuation by vegetation. Here we present field measurements of wave propagation over salt marshes during severe storm conditions, a modelling approach to describe the effect of...

A stochastic model approach for optimisation of lowland river restoration works

Over the course of centuries, river systems have been heavily trained for the purpose of safe discharge of water, sediment and ice, and improves navigation. Traditionally, dikes are used to be reinforced and heightened to protect countries from ever higher flood levels. Other types of solutions than technical engineering solutions, such as...

Handreiking toepassing Deltamodel

Het Deltamodel is een model(instrumentarium) dat gebruikt wordt bij de waterstaatkundige onderbouwing van beleidskeuzen voor de lange termijn. Binnen het Deltaprogramma wordt het Deltamodel ingezet voor beleidsvraagstukken op het gebied van waterveiligheid en de zoetwatervoorziening. De focus ligt hierbij op het hoofdwatersysteem en de...