How to teach engineers to interact in a political decision making environment

Sectoral professionals, like coastal engineers, need to know how to cooperate in a multi-disciplinary environment, as well as how to present substantial information to (political) decision makers. In order to train (coastal engineering) students in this matter, Unesco-IHE and TU Delft have in their curriculum an Integrated Coastal Zone...

Coping with coastal change

The coastal zone is one of the most dynamic environments on our planet and is much affected by global change, especially sea-level rise. Coastal environments harbour valuable ecosystems, but they are also hugely important from a societal point of view. This book, which draws on the expertise of 21 leading international coastal scientists,...

Mining activities in a coastal zone: Effects and remedial measures in the Netherlands

In July, 1959, the presence of gas in the subsoil of the Province of Groningen in the extreme NE part of the Netherlands was confirmed. Subsequently, it became clear that the mining of the gas would result in considerable subsidence and a disruption of the drainage system of an area adjacent to the North Sea, and situated already partly below...

An innovative approach to determine economically optimal coastal setback lines for risk informed coastal zone management

Current methods used to determine Coastal setback lines have several limitations. Furthermore, the historical practice of defining setback lines based on a single deterministic estimate is also proving inadequate with the emergence of risk management style coastal planning frameworks which require probabilistic estimates of coastal recession....

Training of coastal engineers to work in a non-engineering environment

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) is an interdisciplinary process by definition. Individual actors in CZM need to cooperate and communicate to come to an optimum management strategy for the coastal zone. Because engineers focus on finding the “best” solution in engineering terms, they often are quite surprised that in the end of the day...

Integrated coastal policy via Building with Nature

The thesis which appears here is excerpted from the book Integrated Coastal Zone Development via Building with Nature® (Waterman 2008a, 2008b). Although this approach was first applied in the Netherlands, it has gradually been recognized worldwide as a harmonious means of creating land areas for living, working, tourism & recreation, and...

Innovo et Emergo: Procesaanbeveling voor een multifunctionele kustzone in Zeeland

De Zeeuwse kust staat onder druk. Naar verwachting zal de zeespiegel deze eeuw ongeveer 60 centimeter stijgen door klimaatverandering. Niet alleen de zee, maar ook de rivieren zorgen naar alle waarschijnlijkheid voor een stijging. De deltawateren zijn nu weliswaar afgesloten van Rijn, Maas en Schelde, maar in de toekomst wordt wellicht de...

Social, economic en ecological evaluation of the polder Breebaart

The aim of this evaluation is to gain insight in the social, economic en ecological impacts of an overtopping resistant dike compared to a traditional dike in combination with different forms of land use in the hinterland. At the same time this pilot study should provide support the decision makers of the province of Groningen to find solutions...

The Citizens' Perspective in a socio-economic evaluation?

The problem formulation of this quick scan is twofold: Is it possible to fully incorporate the citizens' perspective (for example in the form of experiential value) in a socio-economic evaluation? And does it serve a useful purpose? In this context, the concept of the citizen denotes the user of the (project) site, including neighbouring...

The requirements for Coastal Engineers in Integrated Coastal Zone Management

Worldwide there is a need for training of engineers to work within the framework of Coastal Zone Management. This has effects on the education of engineers. Moreover, the requirements for an educational program for coastal engineers from developing countries are quite different from the requirements for the training of engineers from the...

Dutch approach to coastline management

In the Netherlands we have a strong tradition in making zoning regulations, town and country planning, and so on The Ministry of Environmental Affairs, Town and Country Planning and Housing is one of the most important ministries in this country In matters of planning the basis is the "memorandum on town and country planning", which is renewed...

Coastal zone management around the southern North Sea

The Southern North Sea is bordered by Great-Britain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The North Sea basin and its adjacent shorelines are intensively used. Management of the basin and the coastal zone is therefore essential. Because of the small scale of the area, the dense population and the big scale of the interactions,...

Coastal Management in the Netherlands

The coast is a very important aspect of life in the Netherlands. 60 % of the Netherlands is below the sea level, everyone lives less than 200 km from a beach, and for most people the sea is less than 50 km away. But in the Netherlands there is officially no Agency for Coastal Zone Management, neither are there laws on Coastal Zone Management. On...

Coastal maintenance in the Netherlands

The government of The Netherlands has decided in the summer of 1990 to maintai.n the coastline at the position of 1990. This will be done mainly by artificial beach nourishment. The costs will be paid by the national government. The purpose of this coastal maintenance is to maintain a sufficient level of safety and to maintain the various...

Large-scale coastal behaviour in relation to coastal zone management

The development of coastal erosion management - addressing typical traditional erosion problems - towards coastal zone management addressing the evaluation of alternative solutions to guarantee a variety of coastal zone functions on their economic time scale - has necessitated the formulation of large-scale coastal evolution (LSCE) models. Using...

Coastal protection policy in the Netherlands

The 350 km long Dutch coast along the North Sea is characterized by alternating coastal stretches of accretion and erosion resp. resulting in seaward and landward displacement retreats of the shoreline. Places of accretion and erosion also vary in time. Behind the dunes are low lying polders (very often with a ground level even below the low...