Assessment method of multiple flood protection improvements in a water system governed by a storm surge barrier: The case of Ramspol Barrier

Climate change is adding more and more pressure to the water systems. The area which is protected by the storm surge barrier of Ramspol have high probability of flooding for climate projections in 2050 and 2100. <br/>Nowadays, the development of the technology is providing with numerous tools and analytical models for the engineers. However, in...

Separation of fresh and brackish water in polder water canals

Polders water canals are sometimes exposed to brackish seepage from the nearby saline sea (salinization). This is a problem because the canal water is used to irrigate crops. A characteristic of water is that less dense (fresh) water floats on top of dense (saline) water. In lakes and oceans, it is common that water layers with various densities...

An experimental study on the drag and inertia forces due to mussel growth on vertical poles exposed to waves

Mangroves trap sediment and are the first coastal defence line for many coastal areas. Unfortunately, mangrove coasts worldwide are eroding due to deforestation, exposing local communities to flood hazards. In Demak, Indonesia, a Building with Nature approach was chosen to counteract erosion. Permeable dams were built on the foreshore to...

On the Taylor column driven motion of a buoyant sphere in a free-surface vortex core: An experimental study

The added drag on a buoyant body traveling in a solid-body rotation flow has been rigorously studied over the last century with G.I. Taylor being the first one to describe it in 1922, a hundred years ago. A recent publication by Duinmeijer (2021) investigated the capacity of free-surface vortices to transport solids as a practical application to...

Modelling of dam breach flows; past and future mine tailings dam cases

Tailings storage facilities (TSF) are engineered structures that retain mixed waste material (known as mine tailings material) from mining processes in liquid or slurry form. One of the issues regarding TSF management is the lack of site investigation and sample analyses, which cause the uncertainty of geotechnical properties of mine tailings...

Damping of ship-induced primary waves: Damping ship-induced primary waves in rivers by modifying groynes with the aim of increasing fauna habitat quality

Ships in rivers create waves and these can have a negative impact on fish habitats along the river banks. A modelling study is carried out to investigate how these ship-induced waves can be damped in groyne fields by making structural modifications to the groynes. For this purpose, different types of openings (notches) are applied to the groynes...

Modelling of hydrodynamic and erosion processes at vegetated lake shores: Development of a process-based tool for the design of the protection of a lake shore with reed-like vegetation

In recent years, the interest in integrating shore protection with the local ecosystems has increased. In comparison with the traditional reinforced embankments, integrated shores form a gradual transition from land to water where shore vegetation can establish itself. These nature-friendly shores have a positive impact upon the water quality,...

Assessing the functional performance of the Meuse river: The impact of bed developments and an altering discharge regime on future river functioning

The Meuse river facilitates important socio-economic functions. In the light of Integrated River Management (IRM), the question rises whether these functions can be facilitated in future decades (until 2050) as well. The riverbed is expected to degrade over the coming decades, just like in the past century. On top of that, the discharge regime...

Below the surface: A laboratorial research to the vertical distribution of buoyant plastics in rivers

Rivers are identified as main sources of plastic litter in oceans. About 65% of the plastic litter is buoyant in fresh waters, meaning it has the capability to float, making transport over rivers relatively easy. A better understanding of how plastic litter is transported via rivers is crucial. Both for quantification and mitigation of the...

Wave energy dissipation by a viscous surface layer: Effects on the shear diffusion of a mineral oil slick

Mineral oil spills at sea can have many negative consequences. For both preventive and responsive purposes, it is essential to accurately forecast oil spill evolution. Shear diffusion (in this context, i.e. the combined effect of vertical mixing and differentiated horizontal advection of mass) determines for a significant part the evolution of...

Wave dissipation in a permeable structure: Experimental research on the physical processes causing energy dissipation inside an array of cylinders

Mangrove forests, which serve as a natural sea defence, have been degraded by human action during the last decades. To protect and recover these areas, different types of permeable structures consisting of bamboo have been proposed and applied. However, these structures are currently based on engineering judgement, as design rules are not...

Wall-Modelled Large Eddy Simulation of fully rough non-uniform flow for the purpose of predicting stone stability

Granular bed protections are a common measure to mitigate scour of the sand bed around hydraulic structures. In view of marching towards cost-effective solutions to tackle erosion-related problems, it is important to accurately predict the loads exerted on the bed and come up with the needed rock grading. To that end, a 3-D eddy resolving...

Force characterization for a submerged velocity cap in unsteady flows

Coastal facilities such as desalination plant or a nuclear power plant need a continuous discharge of salty water to carry out their functions. Hereby an intake structure, such as a velocity cap, can be used to take in water from the sea. These intakes are open seafloor founded constructions mounted at a water depth ranging between 10 and 20...

Wave Flume Experiments on Permeable Structures: The effect of arrays of cylinders on wave reflection, dissipation and transmission

Due to the removal of mangrove forests, coastal zones can suffer from severe erosion. One of the proposed solutions is the construction of permeable structures. This study aims to optimise the design of permeable (brushwood) structures in order to restore the sediment balance and encourage mangrove re-establishment on tropical mud coasts....

Sediment Pathways in San Francisco South Bay

San Francisco Bay is the largest estuary on the west coast, and it supports a surrounding population of over 7 million people. Human developments have reduced the amount of fine sediments delivered to the Bay-Delta system in recent years, which threatens habitat restoration initiatives and suitable water quality in the southern reach of the Bay ...

The Bubble Barrier

Plastic pollution of our oceans is becoming a bigger problem every day. The production of new plastics is extremely cheap and convenient resulting in a lack of incentive to retrieve plastic litter. Annually 8 billion kg of plastics enter the ocean polluting the ocean environment, of which the largest part via rivers and other waterways....

Wave-Induced Currents Within Mangrove Forest

Mangroves are tidal trees commonly observed along the sheltered shorelines of most tropical (from equator to 23.5° North and South latitude) and few subtropical (23.5° to 40° North and South latitude) countries. These plants are adapted to loose wet soils, saline habitats and periodic tidal submergence. With more attention paid into the approach...

Rocking Revisited 2: Measurement on Rocking of cubes in a Double Layer on a Breakwater

Rocking behavior of breakwater research was conducted by Centre for Civil Engineering Research and Codes workgroup CUR C70 (1989) and after that no further validation of the research work has been done. In order to understand the rocking behavior and validate the previously conducted research CUR C70 (1989) wave flume test has been conducted in...