Design of a flood bypass tunnel for Valkenburg aan de Geul: Operation and hydraulic design to reduce the risk of flooding

Between July 12 and 15, 2021, extreme rainfall in Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands caused severe flooding. The total damage in the Netherlands is estimated to be between € 350 and € 600 million, with Valkenburg aan de Geul suffering the most damage. The economic and tourist heart of this city is located in the lowest part of the...

An Interdisciplinary Study on the Parana Delta of Argentina

With combined efforts from water management, architectural and hydraulic engineering students, an interdisciplinary and resilient design is set up for the Paraná Delta. The design relates to all the current environmental, architectural and flood risk challenges - among others, as well as the potential issues in the future since the Paraná Delta...

Hydraulic behaviour of the Geul inverted siphon: Energy losses, debris accumulation and applicability of a Minimum Energy Loss culvert

In the area of Bunde in the south of Limburg, the Netherlands, the Geul river flows beneath the Juliana Canal through an inverted siphon before reaching the Meuse. During July 2021 a large scale flood event occurred, showing an insufficient capacity of the inverted siphon when both the Geul and Meuse had high water levels.<br/><br/>Such...

Numerical simulation of the impact of unsteady flows around impervious buildings

In the last few years, the climate crisis has been accelerating at a dizzying pace and poses an emergency threat to our planet. Rainfalls have transformed into intense downpours, and flash flooding, combined with the sea level rise, leads to a higher risk of inundation of densely populated coastal cities. Moreover, the melting of the permafrost...

Effect of bed roughness on the hydrodynamic properties of dam-break waves

A dam-break wave can result in considerable damages and casualties. Events that can lead to such waves include dike and dam breaches, storm surges and impulse waves. Dutch history is familiar with a number of coastal dike breaches but also river dike breaches have occurred, resulting in dam-break waves reaching far inland. Beyond the Netherlands...

Using CFD to design riprap bed protections downstream of underflow weirs: Weir design of the future

Weirs are constructed inside rivers to manage the water level. On the one hand they need to be designed sufficiently strong to prevent failure or destruction, while on the other hand they need to be economically feasible. If a structure is designed too strong, unnecessary costs are made and the structure becomes too expensive.<br/><br/>One of...

Assessing and redesigning Valkenburg’s flood risk management system: A multidisciplinary project

The geographical features in the Southern part of Limburg forces precipitation from upstream located areas to flow through a bottleneck, which is exactly located at the city centre of Valkenburg. This makes increasing the safety level more complicated than in other areas. The safety level of Valkenburg has a lower standard in comparison to the...

Venice and the Lagoon: Two new visions

What long ago started as a small fishing village, seeking refuge from the Romans, slowly evolved into the city of Venice that we know today. With its unique location came unique problems, most of which were related to the interplay between Venice and its lagoon. By severe measures in the past it has continued to withstand the test of time. <br/...