Decisions on life-cycle reliability of flood defence systems

Many countries rely on flood defence systems to prevent economic damage and loss-of-life due to catastrophic floods. Asset managers of flood defence systems need to cope with the consequences of structural degradation, and changing societal and environmental conditions, in order to satisfy performance requirements and optimize societal value of...

Risk based decision making approach: Developed for international shipping domain by adapting from asset management in energy infrastructures

Today, shipping industry is a complex system involving multiple actors, multiple interests and intricate interactions occurring at different levels.With any disruption to interaction occurring there would be multiple impacts and accumulation of costs on individual actors operating in the system.Unless these risks are well understood and...

Hydropolitics and Conflict Management in Transboundary River Basins

This thesis set out to develop methodologies that promote cooperation, peace and development instead of conflict and violence in transboundary water resources management. In particular, its objectives were the following: o To examine and understand the complexity of water systems and water conflict management o To investigate factors affecting...

On reducing piping uncertainties: A Bayesian decision approach

Dikes and levees play a crucial role in flood protection in deltaic areas such as the Netherlands. Internal erosion piping or under-seepage is a major cause of levee failures and a main contributor to the probability of failure of river levees due to the large (mostly geotechnical) uncertainties. The present thesis investigates how geotechnical...

Reliability based structural design

According to ISO 2394, structures shall be designed, constructed and maintained in such a way that they are suited for their use during the design working life in an economic way. To fulfil this requirement one needs insight into the risk and reliability under expected and non-expected actions. A key role in this respect is played by the...

Decision Making on the Ocean Floor: A simulation framework to assess uncertainty and variability in Deep Sea Mining

As land resources decrease, commodity prices increase and technology evolves, deep sea mining is becoming a viable and sustainable alternative to meet the increasing demand for minerals. Successful deep sea mining operations are built on a sound identification of the resource, proper selection of equipment, a thoughtful production plan and good...