Overflow and wave overtopping induced failure processes on the land-side slope of a dike

This thesis discusses the breach initiation processes at the land-side slope of a dike, due to overflow and wave overtopping. To date still little is known about the actual failure process of land-side slope covers. Therefore, starting in 2007, numerous wave overtopping experiments have been executed in The Netherlands and Belgium using a wave...

Effects of water inifltration on soil erodibility

A new flood risk approach for design and testing of primary and secondary flood defence structures in the Netherlands relies on the probability of loss of the water retaining capacity. Determining this probability for levees requires a better understanding of consequences of extreme conditions leading to failure, starting with a study of soil....

Robust Flood Defence in response to Climate Change: Westkapelle Case

In the Netherlands flood protection is immensely important for the safety of the nation. The shocking outcome of the 1953 flooding proves this point. In modern days, the development of socioeconomic and climate change factors casts doubt on the effectiveness of conventional approaches to flood risk management. Consequently, this project explored...

Stability assessment of the landside slope cover on clay flood embankments in the Netherlands

Large parts of the Netherlands are vulnerable to flooding. Due to the great impact that a flood would have for the Dutch society, The flood safety standards are very strict, which means that the required failure probability of flood defences is very low. To keep the flood risk within acceptable limits of the hinterland, flood embankments are...

Overtopping failure in levees

The aim of this research is to provide amathematical model that describes the physics in a levee when waves are overtopping a flood embankment. Ideally, this numerical simulation can replace empirical methods based on overtopping simulations and provide more insight into the physical process of an overtopping flow on a levee. This could prove to...