A pragmatic, performance-based approach to levee safety assessments

Flood prone areas are often protected against flooding by an extensive network of flood defenses. To ensure their structural integrity, these flood defenses are periodically assessed. Many levees have been functioning well for decades, and have survived several relatively high hydraulic loads within their lifetime. However, information on...

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....

The use of individual and societal risk criteria within the Dutch flood safety policy-nationwide estimates of societal risk and policy applications

The Dutch government is in the process of revising its flood safety policy. The current safety standards for flood defences in the Netherlands are largely based on the outcomes of cost-benefit analyses. Loss of life has not been considered separately in the choice for current standards. This article presents the results of a research project...

New safety standards for coastal flood defences in the Netherlands

The Dutch government is in the process of revising its flood safety policy. The current safety standards for flood defences in the Netherlands are largely based on the outcomes of cost-benefit analyses. Loss of life has not been considered separately in the choice for current standards. This article presents the results of a research project...

A risk-informed approach to coastal zone management

Economic and population growth have led to an unprecedented increase in the value at risk in coastal zones over the last century. To avoid excessive future losses, particularly in the light of projected climate change impacts, coastal zone managers have various instruments at their disposal. These primarily concern land-use planning ...

How safe is safe enough?

Disasters can never be completely ruled out. The Dutch national government has therefore committed itself to the concept of risk rather than the false promise of absolute safety. The objectives of this study were to evaluate current regulatory practices in the domains of industrial and flood safety in the Netherlands, and to formulate proposals...