Fighting Against the Current: Restoring dike breaches and closing tidal channels by simple means - from past to present

The dissertation focussed on the kind of closure methods used, in the past and at present, to repair breached dikes and to close tidal channels by simple means. By simple means one must think about the application by (mainly) manual labour of local materials and small-scale tools and equipment. The closure of tidal channels is also required in...

BresDefender: An experimental study on an emergency response measure for levee breaches

The dissertation explores the use of emergency measures, particularly the BresDefender, to prevent or delay levee failure and mitigate the impacts of floods, focusing on the Netherlands' flood protection systems. Levees are vital for protecting low-lying areas, but there's always a risk of failure, leading to significant societal and material...

Amsterdam quays under pressure: Modelling and testing of historic canal walls

Amsterdam faces the challenge of maintaining a domain of 200 km historic quay walls, which is a vital part of the city’s historical landscape. Many quays are currently in poor condition and require renovation or replacement in the near future, significantly impacting the city. The quay walls can be up to 300 years old and their structure...

Strategic Flood Risk Management: A System-Based Approach

Another Hit On The Wall: Confined Wave Impacts on Hydraulic Structures

Hydraulic structures are crucial for navigation, water management and flood protection in low-lying coastal and delta regions. Their importance is expected to continue growing in the coming years, because of the consequences of climate change and the continuous development and urbanization of these regions combined with more strict safety...

Hindcasting of levee failures: Deterministic and probabilistic methods

In the last century, approximately 100,000 people lost their lives during a flood event and over 1.4 billion people were affected. As the population and economic activities grow in flood-prone areas and the frequencies and intensities of flood events increase due to climate change, damage due to flooding is expected to increase. To limit and...

Time-dependent development of Backward Erosion Piping

Structural flood protection systems such as levees are an important component in flood risk reduction strategies. Levees can fail through various failure mechanisms; this thesis focuses on the mechanism Backward Erosion Piping (BEP) which occurs when a sandy levee foundation is eroded by groundwater flow. To assess whether a levee's reliability...

Wave-induced vibrations of flood gates: modelling, experimentation and design

Flood gates form an essential part of many flood defence systems in coastal areas. During storm events, these gates are subjected to extreme loads from various sources. This dissertation addresses the dynamic behaviour of flood gates induced by wave impacts. A semi-analytical fluid-structure interaction model is developed to predict vertical...

Testing and modeling of sheet pile reinforced dikes on organic soils: Insights from the Eemdijk full-scale failure test

The Netherlands is inherently challenged by water, as a large part of the country lies below sea level and several major rivers in North-western Europe cross the country. The most prevalent form of protection from coastal and river floods in the Netherlands includes approximately 22,000 km of earthen dikes, of which 3800 km are primary flood...

Advancing Flood Risk Screening

Manycoastal cities are struggling with a rapidly growing risk of flooding. The sizeand complexity of these cities often demand a coordinated strategy, consistingof a combination of flood risk reduction measures. A crucial part in the designprocess is the identification of effective flood risk management strategies. However,data and resources are...

The Influence of Infragravity Waves on Overtopping at Coastal Structures with Shallow Foreshores

Coastal communities across the globe are often protected by structures, such as seawalls, levees or dikes, which allow only a safe volume of water to pass over or “overtop” them due to wave action during storms. The area seaward of these structures is often characterised by shallow, gently sloping beds referred to as foreshores.<br/>As storm...

Understanding Levee Failures from Historical and Satellite Observations

Flood defense systems are critical in protecting against catastrophic events which often lead to significant damage, fatalities or substantial socio-economic and environmental impact. Even though levees form a significant part of the existing flood defense systems, there is a limited knowledge of the different levee behavior processes and the...

Enhancing reliability-based assessments of quay walls

In the coming years, thousands of quay walls will approach the end of their intended fifty-year design lifetime and become part of lifetime extension programmes throughout the world. It is presently unclear how reliable these structures are and whether they are still capable of bearing ship and crane loads. An appropriate assessment of a quay...

Building safety with nature: Salt marshes for flood risk reduction

Flood risk reduction in coastal areas is traditionally approached from a conventional engineering perspective, where dikes and dams are built to withstand the forces of tides, surges and waves. Recently, a nature-based approach to flood risk reduction is increasingly promoted, in which the benefits of coastal ecosystems for reducing the impact...

Advancing Methods For Evaluating Flood Risk Reduction Measures

Flood risk reduction systems are applied worldwide to reduce flood risk and provide protection of flood prone areas. More and more, decision makers use risk-based approach for the design and implementation of interventions in these systems. This dissertation advances existing risk-based approaches for specific interventions within a flood risk...

Methods for improving pan-European flood risk mapping

In the past decade, there has been growing interest in analysing flood hazard and risk on European scale. Such studies allow assessment of climate change impacts, can be used at EU-level policymaking and provide information on countries where local flood maps are not available. In this thesis, some innovative methodologies that contribute to...

Impacts of overtopping waves on buildings on coastal dikes

Due to climate change, sea level rise, increasing frequency and intensity of storms, and growing population in low-lying coastal regions, the risk of flooding is expected to increase. Owing to these developments, maintenance and adaption of the existing coastal flood defence is often required. To meet this dilemma, the concept of multifunctional...