An extensive Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is used to determine the efficiency in reducing the carbon footprint of a graving dock. Firstly by identifying the hotspots in a base design, and then by comparing the various design alternatives. The focus is on reducing the amount of reinforced concrete used in the design of the dock floor by adding fibres to the concrete mixture and on prevention of having to dispose of in-flowing sediment after every docking procedure. Other evaluation methods such as a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) that compares the economic viability and a Multi Criteria Analysis that combines the results of the LCA and CBA and assesses the design alternatives on other criteria such as ease of operation and maintenance are used to determine the optimal dock configuration for Damen Shipyard and Conversion B.V. in Harlingen.

Animal-induced anomalies on a levee surface negatively affect the erosion-resistance of a levee, leading to rapid failure of the inner slope in case of overtopping and/or overflow during high water. Where active prevention techniques of burrows from large animals, such as muskrats, are applied in and around levees in the Netherlands, the identification of smaller burrow holes made by voles and moles and the evaluation of the severity of the damage rely solely on the assessment and experience of the levee inspector.
The Polder2C’s project aims to quantitively assess the impact of animal burrows on the levee surface by conducting experiments at the Living Lab Hedwige and Prosper Polder (LHPP) and this thesis aims to contribute in this by analyzing the experiment results and developing a model for levee inspection that includes uncertainties of the geometrical characteristics of vole and mole burrow systems.
This thesis distinguishes two phases, the first of which focuses on the question: ‘How do animal burrows influence levee performance?’, and it aims to form a foundation for the second phase of the report by focusing on the behavior of burrowing animals and the geometrical characteristics of their burrows by conducting a literature review on existing research on this topic. Guidelines were set up that contribute to the identification of mole and vole burrow system by investigating the main differences between them, with the aim to easily identify separate burrow hole groups in the experiment data. These conclusions could then be used to identify different vole and mole burrow hole groups in data that was collected from several experiments at the Living Lab Hedwige and Prosper Polder (LLHPP) between October 2021 and February 2022 and answer the research question for the second phase, which was: ‘Based on data from levee inspection experiments, which probabilistic model can assess the inspection success rate of animal burrows?’.