Geotechnical projects are successful when there is a lot of knowledge about the soil implemented in safe sustainable solutions. Existing models of hydraulic flow in soils need to be tested and confirmed again and again to make sure it’s trustworthy. With the use of three-layered samples containing 1mm and 3mm glass bead sizes a simplified model of the fining upward (1mm top layer) and coarsening upward (3mm top layer) stratification was made. The top and bottom layers consist of a uniform glass bead size. The middle layer is a binary mixed one with different volumetric percentages to mimic the gradual increase of grain sizes like fining and coarsening upward sediment deposits. A decrease in the permeability was observed as the volume percentage of the smaller glass beads increased. The influence of a possible transition/mixed zone between layers was not clear because of the small ratios of the used glass beads. This is also the case for the effect of the porosity on the permeability. In addition, test samples were prepared to calculate the theoretical harmonic permeability to be able to compare it with the actual measured permeability. This theoretical harmonic permeability seems in the case of the coarsening upward samples smaller than the actual measured permeability as was expected from findings of another research. This study confirms the influence of the relative positioning of the layers with their specific properties on the overall permeability and the deviation from the theoretical harmonic permeability. Future prediction of the permeability’s in layered deposits is a little bit more educated with the findings of this study.

About 80-90% of U.S. East Coast barrier beaches have experienced erosion in the last 100 years. South Carolina’s coastline forms no exception, a third of its developed shoreline experiences erosion. Among these eroding shorelines is Hilton Head Island, the second largest barrier island on the U.S. East Coast. Until now, erosion here has been addressed through traditional local beach nourishments. An alternative approach to the traditional nourishment method, are so-called feeder nourishments or feeder beaches. The potential advantages of the feeder nourishment concept over the traditional method are reduction of the nourishment frequency, containment of the ecological stress in a relatively small area, and a short to medium term increase of local available space for recreation and the environment. Given the potential advantages above, the residents of Hilton Head Island asked TU Delft to investigate the possibility of applying a feeder nourishment at their shoreline. Currently, a pilot project known as “The Sand Engine” is examined along the Dutch coast. Several studies into its morphological behaviour show that this feeder nourishment can be beneficial to the sediment budget of a larger coastal cell. Because of the promising results at the Sand Engine pilot project, it is tempting to state that a feeder-nourishment could also be applied at Hilton Head Island. The problem, however, is that the conditions at Hilton Head Island and the Sand Engine are different. There are two main differences between Hilton Head Island and the Sand Engine. First, Hilton Head is subjected to a relative calm wave climate in comparison to the Sand Engine. Second, the presence of two tidal inlets at Hilton Head, compared to a relative straight and uninterrupted coastline at the Sand Engine. As a result, the conclusions drawn from the Sand Engine pilot project do not necessarily hold for Hilton Head Island as well. The main objective of this thesis is to analyse the morphological behaviour of a feeder nourishment located at Hilton Head Island. First, to study its potential as a measure against erosion at Hilton Head. Second, to compare its morphological behaviour to that of the Sand Engine. And third, to be able to examine the potential of the concept for the Atlantic southeast coast of the U.S. in general. The morphological development of a feeder nourishment at Hilton Head Island was simulated with Delft3D over the course of 1 year for different model scenarios, with varying forcing conditions and varying bathymetric features. The effect of the relative calm wave climate at Hilton Head Island in comparison to the Sand Engine is twofold. First, the contribution of wave forcing to the total erosional volume of the feeder nourishment after 1 year is smaller as compared to the Sand Engine. Eliminating all driving forces besides wave forcing reduces the total erosional volume to 58% at Hilton Head, in comparison to 75% at the Sand Engine. Second, the contribution of storm events to the total erosional volume after 1 year from the feeder nourishment is smaller at Hilton Head compared to the Sand Engine. It measures 23% at Hilton Head, in comparison to 60% at the Sand Engine. To assess the impact of the two tidal inlets on the feeder nourishment, they were closed off. Closing of the tidal inlets eliminates any (potential) residual currents. This reduces the total amount of sediment that is eroded from the feeder nourishment by 7% compared to a reference scenario with open tidal inlets. Before construction of the feeder nourishment the coastline south of the nourishment experienced a net sediment outflux of approximately 4000 m3/year. After construction of the feeder nourishment, the southern section experiences a net import of sediment of approximately 100.000 m3/year. Meaning that the southern section, on average, has transitioned from being erosive to accreting. Up to 500 meter away from the nourishment the cross-shore profile shows a seaward movement of the shoreline position of approximately 25 m compared to the original situation without nourishment. Before construction of the feeder nourishment the coastline north of the nourishment experienced a net sediment outflux of approximately 40.000 m3/year. After construction of the feeder nourishment, this net outflux of sediment has decreased to approximately 25.000 m3/year. This shows that the feeder nourishment is feeding sediment to the northern section, but at a rate that is not sufficient to keep up with the underlying erosion rate. The northern domain, on average, still experiences a sediment outflux and stays erosive. Roughly 50 m of coastline directly north of the feeder nourishment experiences a seaward movement of the shoreline position. However, moving further away from the nourishment, the shoreline remains erosive. The Atlantic southeast coast of the United States is made up of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida’s east coast. The South Carolina and Georgia coastline are comparable in both hydrodynamic conditions and geomorphological setting. They are mixed-energy coasts, broken up by numerous tidal inlets, and home to short barrier islands with complex sediment transport patterns. North Carolina’s and Florida’s east coast are wave-dominated, with relative straight shorelines. Which is distinctly differences from the conditions found at Hilton Head Island. Therefore, the potential of the feeder nourishment concept is only analysed for South Carolina’s and Georgia’s coastline. The presence of numerous tidal inlets leads to strongly varying conditions along the coastlines of both states. The developed locations along South Carolina’s coastline that require erosion mitigating measures are south Debidue beach, North Island, Hunting Island and Daufuskie Island. Along Georgia’s coastline there are only some erosion hotspots along Sea Island’s coastline that require erosion mitigation measures. The wave climate at all the above mentioned location is similar to Hilton Head. A southeast swell, with a narrow range of directions and an annual wave height of roughly 1,0 m. The same goes for the tidal range. The results at Hilton Head show that erosion on adjacent coastal sections can be lessened and/or prevented by constructing a feeder nourishment. Given that these locations are subjected to similar conditions, the construction of a feeder nourishment could potentially be an effective measure to prevent or lessen the occurring erosion.

The thesis explores the socio-territorial orientation of Finnmark, northern Norway, in relation to the growing international interest for the development of the mineral industry. This interest is met locally with directly opposing views, favouring on the one hand the cultural development related to land-based practices, and on the other hand exploiting Finnmarks high resource potential for the benefit of municipal growth and job development. Difficulties arise with the geographic distribution of ethnicities. Proposed developments of the mineral industry find more support in coastal areas and although most indigenous Sámi find their home inland, they depend to a large degree for their livelihood on this coastal areas. The current fractured political landscape is highly related to and tied up with the complex history of internal center-periphery dynamics, colonization and stigmatization, which took (and in a way are still taking) place under the flagship of national assimilation policies of ‘norwegianization’, sustaining Finnmarks not-so-postcolonial present. In this perspective, three mining cases are of interest, due to the different social and political responses to the mining plans: Nussir in Kvalsund, Bidjovagge in Kautokeino and Sydvaranger in Sør-Varanger. Motivations behind decision-making on these cases illustrate clearly the conflicts of interests and demonstrate the difficulties for coexistence of directly opposing world views. Through an understanding of the formation of societal strata, the argument of the thesis unfolds over an in-depth spatiotemporal and on-site analysis of the cases and their specific socio-territorial setting in Finnmark. I argue that we should look more critically at the tendentious role of the modus operandi of urbanists and geologists (more specifically of resource mappers), in their way of influencing decision-making and framing and shaping cultural life, especially in contested territories. The thesis then moves towards a possible way forward through redesigning our conventional tools and methods for a more inclusive territorial-based endogenous growth model, such an inclusive growth model has the potential to bring together on the long term the opposing visions and ideas on the future of the mining industry and the preservation of indigenous culture. I end by arguing that knowledge building from a combined perspective has the potential to evolve the acceptance amongst cultures abiding by different worldviews. Effectively, the newly proposed geological era of the Anthropocene, proposes also the updating modern science with cultural diversity, asking for renewed responses away from the modern tradition.

The following report brings to light how LiDAR data of an outcrop can be acquired and subsequently processed in order to extract the geometry of the outcrop and its pertaining parameters. It makes the use of a sandstone outcrop in the Trooz quarry, Belgium, near Liege. The outcrop was scanned using a terrestrial laser scanner, after which the point cloud data recorded information, pertaining to position and intensity was then processed and subject to interpretation. The report aims to systematically and chronologically take the reader through the entire workflow used by the author, its drawbacks and advantages. Whilst providing a specific analysis of the outcrop in question, creating a general guideline is also an aim. Prior to the processing the significance of the geologic history of the area is touched upon along with the practical acquisition of that data, concerning equipment and procedure. The physical principles of LiDAR and other possible options of acquiring data such as photogrammetry are explained, each with their benefits and shortcomings. The practicality of LiDAR is especially analysed followed by explanation and usage of processing methods such as registration, geo-referencing and computation of geometrical parameters, specifically with the help of software’s such as CloudCompare and MATLAB. Once the results of such parameters are derived, their integrity is discussed by comparing MATLAB oriented methods to those of CloudCompare. These quantified results include values of dip angle and direction over the entire outcrop and the corresponding normal vectors. Varying roughness over the surface of the outcrop and analysis of the intensity distribution present. Whilst also validating these results by comparing them with manual recorded results of dip angle and direction taken at the site. The significance of these parameters is discussed and their application in the characterization of layering. Finally, suggestions regarding the methodology both during acquisition and processing such as during geo-referencing are made by displaying obstacles encountered and flaws realized in the author’s own work.

Growing interest has been expressed the last decades regarding the Late Cenozoic, gas-bearing sediments of Southern North Sea Basin. Comprising the shallow subsurface of the Dutch offshore sector, these sediments have been deposited by Eridanos fluvio-deltaic system, draining the Fennoscandian and Baltic shield through the present Baltic Sea. Three successful producing fields - A12-FA (2007), F02a-B-Pliocene (2009) and B13-FA (2011)- and five under development have triggered the conduction of several studies in the offshore area. However the deltaic environment has been characterized as highly complex owing to its influence by the onset of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation and thus the processes that governed the system have not become entirely understood. Enhanced cooling followed by the waxing and waning of the glaciers during warmer periods had an immediate impact on sediment supply, accommodation space and mineralogical input. Although the sediments have been studied in terms of chrono-biostratigraphy, no systematic investigation with respect to the three main aforementioned factors as well as the regional sequence stratigraphy and its link to the reservoir deposits has been made up to date. Therefore, this study employed sequence stratigraphy as a method to examine Eridanos conditions of deposition, investigate the interplay between accommodation space and sediment supply and explore the nature of the gas-bearing reservoir sediments. The adopted methodology is comprised of two basic pillars, observation and interpretation. The first records as clearly as possible the observations arise from the sequence analysis while the second extracts the meaningful information and interprets it in terms of temporal and spatial concepts. Using 2D seismic and well log data the basic observations were the stratal terminations, stacking patterns, seismic facies and the shoreline trajectory. Seismic and well log interpretation showed that the delta experienced multiple events of sea level fall which forced the shoreline to regress basinward and caused sediment erosion or non-deposition. These events are bounded by nine time-significant surfaces of subaerial unconformities which constitute the depositional sequences. Normal regression comprised the dominant depositional trend, combined with aggrading-prograding patterns, leading to characteristic alternations of highstand and lowstand system tracts. Three main depositional environments which correspond to open marine turbidites (submarine lobes), delta front and delta top were identified from well logs, core descriptions and the seismic facies analysis. The study suggests that the shallow gas is located in the alternations of silty-sandstones and claystones of the delta plain which comprise the vertical stacking of parasequence topsets within the highstand- lowstand system tracts. Reconstruction of the relative sea level changes and sedimentation rates was made based on a technique introduced by this study. It uses the average thickness of each seismic unit in order to interpolate time between the three known absolute ages obtained by the literature. The graphs showed that the accommodation space was generated by a low rate of sea level rise while sedimentation rates were increasing over time. However the scarcity of time constrains in combination with the uncertainty in the estimation of seismic volumes resulted in a low resolution outcome. A comparison between the findings of this study and those of the existing literature was made. The overall depositional trends and conditions seem to be in accordance with the other surveys. Nonetheless the proposed interplay between accommodation and supply can be assigned as local since the examined area is limited compare to areas studied in literature. Limitations are traced in the quality of the 2D seismic data hampering the observation regarding the relation between the reflectors and the surfaces. Consequently, the study offers an insight into the conditions under which the gas-bearing deltaic sediments were deposited and tries to place them in the established sequence stratigraphic framework. Also it provides information regarding the distribution of the deltaic environments and identification of the reservoir rocks within each setting. The resulting interpretation can be used for prediction of the reservoir formations since the genetically-related packages where they were identified are distributed in a predictable manner within a sedimentary basin.

Hydrocarbon or geothermal reservoir often consists of several rock layers from different lithology. The various lithologies have their own number of mechanical properties and the layering effect introduced the term of mechanical contrast, which represents the ratio of rock strength between adjacent layers. Mechanical contrast and confining pressure highly influence the fracture behavior in the layered rocks. In this study, fractures in layered rocks are investigated, starting with its geometry and also the stress field contributed to the fracture generation and development. The fracture geometry such as fracture length, average aperture, aperture distribution and orientation are quantified in a two dimension slice image. The study focused on comparing the fracture behavior when (a) the layered rock compositions are the same between samples with increasing confining pressure or (b) the different compositions of layered rocks (different mechanical contrast) between samples in the same confining pressure. The results show that fracture tends to propagate through layer interface when the mechanical contrast between adjacent layers and the confining pressure are low. The fracture in the weak layer developed at a gentler dip (shear fracture) with higher fracture aperture compared to the ones in the strong layer which almost vertical (tensile fracture). In addition, the shear fracture in the weak layer usually accompanied by the zone of cataclastic flow while the tensile fracture has a more clear pathway for fluid flow. However, mode I opening/tensile fractures are less likely to affect fluid flow in the reservoir because their aperture is insignificant at depth. While in mode II sliding/shear fractures, only several parts along the fracture that can provide the open space, which depend on the presence of jogs and irregularities on the fracture surfaces. The results from fracture measurements show that in the weak layer, average aperture and aperture distribution will reduce with the increasing of confining pressure, but increased with the increasing of mechanical contrast. Average fracture aperture and distribution have a significant role in capillary pressure. The higher average aperture will reduce the amount of pressure needed to flow the fluid, while a higher number of aperture standard deviation (aperture distribution) has a contrasting effect. The average aperture has a bigger impact on capillary pressure compare to aperture distribution. Thus, by increasing the confining pressure or decreasing the mechanical contrast, the required pressure for fluid to flow is increasing. Furthermore, the numerical modeling is performed by imitating the rock mechanical properties and the fracturing conditions from the laboratory experiment. The results show that under compressive stresses, the layered rocks still generate tensile stresses around the interface within the strong layer. The tensile stresses occur because of the stress transfer between adjacent stiff and soft layer with a bonded interface. The presence of tensile stress and the crack-tip stress are responsible for the generation of the tensile fracture in the strong layer for all samples. The effect of varying the number of confining pressure, Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus on the tensile stresses distribution are also performed. The sensitivity study shows that Poisson’s ratio has a more significant impact compared to Young’s modulus on both maximum tensile stress and thickness of tensile region. Higher Poisson’s ratio resulting in higher tensile stresses, while on Young’s modulus it depends on the contrast between adjacent layers rather than the magnitudes. Understanding the fracture behavior in layered rocks is beneficial for reservoir characterization, as fractures can enhance the permeability and providing vertical connectivity between isolated reservoirs. Accurately interpret 3D natural fracture distribution can help the estimation of the resource and recoverable potential early in field life. It will also contribute to optimizing the well placement and completion design for efficient production planning.

A mega-feeder nourishment is a concentrated nourishment that disperses over time due to wind, waves, and tide, and as a result ‘feeds’ its adjacent coasts. During the design phase of a nourishment, performance indicators can enable an objective comparison of a mega-feeder nourishment to alternative nourishment strategies, In the case of an existing mega-feeder nourishment, predictions of the performance enable an objective assessment of the need for additional nourishments in the proximity of a mega-feeder nourishment. Today, engineers and policy makers rely on expert judgement when assessing alternative nourishment strategies, or the need for additional nourishments. Currently no tool exists that enables quantification of the performance of a mega-feeder nourishment. Existing models that describe and predict developments of nearshore coastal areas have been applied before to assess the developments of a mega-feeder nourishment, but have not been validated specifically to describe the performance in terms of alongshore feeding. The research question is therefore: "How to describe and predict macro-scale mega-feeder nourishment performance with behaviour-based coastal indicators?" A tool is proposed that enables the quantification of the performance of a mega-feeder nourishment, as well as the validation of models that describe and predict the performance of a mega-feeder nourishment, The tool is specifically aimed at quantifying the performance in terms of the alongshore feeding. The tool comprises of indicators that representatively quantify the contribution of sediment, the region of feeding, and the time it does so. The tool is applied to the Sand Engine, used as a case study to examine the applicability. This Sand Engine, constructed during the spring of 2011, has a nourishment volume of 21.5Mm3, initially spanned a width of 2.4km and extended 1km into the sea. Application of the indicators to the Sand Engine confirmed the performance developed with continuous trends, suggesting the performance can be predicted. From the validation of the model approaches, it is concluded that the analytical model can be used to predict the initial performance of a mega-feeder nourishment, if the longshore spreading is derived from the LST equation by Kamphuis. Second, if the bathymetry is regularly monitored (e.g. semi-annually), the input of the analytical model can be calibrated, enabling long-term predictions of the performance. If more detailed descriptions of the developments of a mega-feeder nourishment are needed, a bruteforce process-based numerical modelling approach can serve as a method to describe and predict the feeding performance of a mega-feeder nourishment. The performance of the Sand Engine is predicted with the validated models up until 2030. The volumetric growth will stagnate on the south, while on the north it is expected to grow up to 4Mm3. The width will increase to approximately 7km. From this, it is concluded that it is unlikely the Sand Engine will meet its original objective of contributing to coastal safety along the Westland coast (17.2km). Further, the half-life of the Sand Engine will be reached near 2030, indicating the actual lifetime is significantly longer than the design lifetime (20 years).

Since early history, humans have been attracted to coastal areas. This can be related to the economic benefits of these areas due to access of ocean navigation, coastal fisheries, tourism and recreation (Seas and Plans, 2011). Around 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 km of the coast (Seas and Plans, 2011). People are drawn to sandy beaches in particular because of its aesthetics and value for specific economic amenities (Luijendijk et al., 2018). Nevertheless, as these beaches are dynamic both in time and space, proper coastal management is required to prevent loss of land and secure future coastal life. Up till now, studies into coastal erosion have been conducted locally, resulting in site specific observations. However, the promising results of using satellite imagery in the field of coastal engineering allowed studies to be performed at larger spatial scales. This can lead to the identification of areas with similar characteristics, resulting in methodological standardization of approaching a specific problem. A first step toward this new approach of studying shoreline evolution was taken by Luijendijk et al. (2018) who presented a global dataset of annual shoreline positions for sandy beaches over the period 1984-2016 using satellite derived shorelines (SDS). However, the drivers (causes) of shoreline evolution on a global scale were still unknown, making it only suitable for identifying areas of structural shoreline change, but less suitable for deriving coastal management solutions. Therefore, the research objective in this study is to identify and characterize drivers of shoreline evolution on a global scale using SDS. This study focused on dynamic sandy beaches, or hotspots, extracted using a method developed by Kras (2019). In this method, using a 2.5-kilometer moving window, transects showing structural shoreline changes and similar characteristics both in space and time were grouped. The small size of the moving window led to locally created hotspots, 95% of which had a spatial extent of less than 10 kilometers, allowing to study shoreline drivers with small to moderate spatial scales (∼10 kilometer). Therefore, the main focus in this study lies on seasonality as a natural driver of shoreline evolution and three anthropogenic drivers: reclamations, nourishments and littoral drift barriers. As seasonality shows inter-annual variability, the temporal resolution of the SDS is increased from annual to monthly. Using time series decomposition methods, different parameters are extracted that can be used to link the drivers to the SDS. Besides temporal parameters, also parameters related to spatial characteristics are considered. These parameters can be split into identification parameters, used for identifying a driver, and informative parameters, providing knowledge on the behavior of the driver. These parameters were developed and tested using local case studies. Results from these local case studies showed that the identification parameters showed similar behavior along the case studies. This implies that the identification parameters correctly reflect a driver’s behavior. Next, identification of the drivers was verified on a larger scale, all transects within hotspots on West-European coastlines. Verification was done on hundreds of samples using literature or manual inspection of satellite images. Using precision scores, the fraction of true positives to the total identified cases, optimal settings were derived for identification of the drivers. These settings resulted in a pattern of driver identification and characterization along the West-European coastline that is supported by literature. With the optimal settings for identification determined, the methods were deployed on a global scale. The global dataset consisted out of 3033 prograding and 2121 retreating hotspots containing over 58 thousand transects in total. For these hotspots, SDS were generated over the period 1984-2021 with a monthly temporal resolution. This resulted in a global dataset of more than 26 million monthly shoreline positions. Two other processes, in addition to a seasonal change in wave height, were found to be able to generate seasonal variations in coastline positions from this global dataset. At the Red Sea, even though the wave climate is low in energy (Langodan et al., 2017), the coast is characterized by seasonal behavior. However, in this basin, seasonal variations in water levels rather than the wave climate best described this pattern. In addition to varying wave height and water level, seasonal beach morphology can also be caused by a shift in wave direction. This was observed in southern and western parts of Australia. Furthermore, non-seasonal beaches were primarily seen in low-energetic wave regions where neither of these other two processes occurred, as is the case in the Mediterranean. In regions where seasonal shoreline fluctuations are caused by differences in wave energy, minimum shoreline positions were found at the start of the summer. However, the period in which minimal shoreline positions are observed may be observed at a different time of the year in regions where seasonal shoreline behavior is driven by water level variations or a shift in wave direction. The identification of reclamations pointed out that this driver was especially linked to shoreline evolution in the Middle East and East-Asia. Furthermore, while the amount of constructions of reclamations remained constant on a global level over the period 1987-2017, in these two areas an increase was observed. Opposite behavior was found by the identification of nourishments, as this driver was identified more often in the period 2007-2017 compared to the two decades before that. Moreover, nourishments were mostly observed in Western countries, for example the USA and the Netherlands. Nevertheless, also in Non-Western countries, an increment over time in the amount of nourishments could be detected. This indicates that throughout the entire world the use of nourishments as a measure to prevent coastal erosion is increasing. Shoreline evolution linked to littoral drift barriers was mostly observed in North-America, Europe and Africa. Downdrift (erosive) hotspots were mostly observed in Africa while in North-America and Europe mostly updrift (accreting) hotspots were linked to littoral drift barriers. On a global level, a combination of an updrift and downdrift hotspots (a pair) was observed in only 2% of all hotspots. The outcomes above can support local-scale studies by identifying the drivers of shoreline evolution, describing their characteristics and even create standardization by analyzing areas with similar behavior. Hence, it can be concluded that spatiotemporal parameters describing the behavior of a driver can be used to identify and characterize drivers on a global scale using SDS. Nevertheless, not all drivers of shoreline evolution were included in this study. Therefore, to include drivers with larger spatial scales, hotspots should be extracted by using a larger moving spatial window. Furthermore, by increasing the spatiotemporal resolution on which this extraction is based, accuracy of the spatial extent of the hotspots is expected to increase. The small proportion of pairs identified for littoral drift barriers can be partly explained by the erroneous spatial extent of some hotspots. Finally, drivers are identified independently from each other neglecting their interactions. Even though interactions might be complex, drivers should not be identified independently as this will rather require local studies than support them. Still, even though refinement and further development of the methods is required, this research has shown that identifying the drivers of shoreline development on a global scale using SDS has great potential for sustainable coastal management in the face of future challenges

The Parisian urban region is currently experiencing Europe’s largest urban transition centered around a 200 km mobility network (the Grand Paris Express) and intended to project the city beyond its historic boundaries and into the 21st century. This inevitable urban restructuring is reconfiguration spatial, socio-political, and cultural relations between the urban center and the periphery but is also considerably affecting the ecological functioning of the larger riverine territory of the Seine Basin from which it depends on. This thesis investigates the ecological, geological, and hydrological consequences of material extraction needed to construct the Parisian Urban Project, looking most notably at sand and aggregate quarries used in the production of concrete. While this graduation project does not look to offer an alternative to extractivism, it looks at applying a material practice of repair on damaged landscapes to mend for past destructive actions and reintegrate post-extraction sites into a larger production system. This project first constitutes a joint narrative between the urban project of the Grand Paris and the territorial project of the Seine watershed. This relational outlook is intended to form nonlinear and dynamic links between the urban and the territorial, land and water, and culture and matter to uncover the uneven and exploitative practices occurring in and around the river system. This project then follows urban matter - materials associated with the construction of the urban - through a forensic exploration, associating socio-cultural crisis with political and economic agendas and their physical manifestation beyond the conventional urban boundaries, looking at cultural and physical forces applied on geologies and the processes of de/re-territorialization of matter. Finally, this thesis formulates a territorial vision embedding a new material cycle in the Seine River Basin and proposing a design intervention towards repair in La Bassée, the last remaining upstream wetland in the watershed. This vision provides a dual social and ecological rehabilitation of post-extraction sites towards an integrated multi-species riverine landscape adapted to the instabilities of the New Climatic Regime.

With an increase in the demand for heat energy, and the growing conscience of the world to reduce CO2 emissions, the transition to cleaner energy alternatives has gained momentum. In the Netherlands, the potential for cost-effective geothermal heat extraction from sedimentary aquifers has led to the exploration of siliciclastic Triassic reservoirs in the West Netherlands Basin and Roer Valley Graben for their suitability. This thesis primarily focuses on two geothermal target wells namely NDW-01 and NLW-GT-01. These wells lie in the Nederweert and Westland areas respectively.NDW-01 comprises of 292m thick sandstone package which is scarcely studied. While the NLW-GT-01 well was drilled tapping depths of over 4000 meters and encountering temperatures of about 100°C. In contradiction to the pre-drill expectations of having appreciable porosity and permeability values between 10-500mD, the Upper Volpriehausen sandstones in NLW-GT-01 exhibited porosity and permeabilities ranging between 1.4% to 3.9% and ≤0.02mD respectively. The sandstones were highly compacted and severely cemented by dolomite and quartz. These cements blocked all the macropores leaving no visible porosity in the thin sections. Although, the cored interval was extensively fractured the measured permeability values were negligible. This thesis presents the results of an assessment of the factors leading to the deterioration of intrinsic porosity and permeability of Triassic aquifers lying in the Westland and Nederweert regions. In this project, grain-size analysis using core plugs, thin-section study, petrophysical data analysis, and FMI log interpretation were conducted to understand the depositional environment of the Lower Germanic Trias Group precisely the cored sections of the Nederweert Sandstone Member in NDW-01 well and the Volpriehausen sandstones in NLW-GT-01 borehole. Due to the complex tectonic history coupled with locally different paleoenvironments, the current depths of the Triassic deposits in the investigated area did not correlate with the reservoir quality of the adjacent shallower wells. In addition to the local depositional conditions in the basin, the variable precipitation in the source area, and the distance of sediment transport have defined the rock characteristics. The primary grain-textures, such as roundness, sorting, packing, as well as the detrital framework and authigenic minerals, were found to influence the sandstone porosity. The tightness of the reservoir was due to significant mechanical compaction and cementation described by a diagenetic reconstruction explaining the evolution of porosity with depth with a negligible generation of secondary porosity. The deterioration of the reservoir quality is correlatable to the burial history and its resulting consequences, namely mechanical and chemical compaction endured by the rock during periods of basin subsidence and uplift. These analyses have put the deviation of pre-drill results from those that were obtained through post-drill evaluations into perspective.

A large part of the Dutch coast, the barrier islands in the Wadden Sea included, would be eroding if the deficit in the total sediment budget was not compensated for through nourishments. Ebb-tidal deltas have an important function within the coastal system that make them of interest for coastal defence as a source and transport path for sand to the back-barrier basins and the island coastlines. As part of the Kustgenese 2.0 project, a pilot nourishment of 5.5 million m3 has been placed on the Ameland ebb-tidal delta. Improved understanding of sediment bypassing processes and the interaction with a nourishment is needed for strategic placement of nourishments in the future. In this thesis we analyse the high-frequency bathymetric dataset available at Ameland inlet between 2005 and 2020 and model the tide- and wave-driven transport pathways using to SedTRAILS to determine how sediment bypassing works under natural circumstances and under the influence of a nourishment. A new series of conceptual models has been proposed. These show that the formation and growth of a series of ebb-shields on the western side of the ebb-tidal delta plays an important role in sediment bypassing. Their development gradually results in transport pathways connecting the western side of the ebb-tidal delta to the major transport pathway along the ebb-delta front, which forms a direct connection to the Ameland coast in 2017. The influence of the pilot nourishment on sediment bypassing processes is limited, adding volume to the system but not altering the existing transport pathways. Transport pathways show that sediment from the nourishment eventually reaches the Ameland coast and is unlikely to feed the Terschelling coast or the tidal basin. This is valuable knowledge for the future sustainable coastal management of Ameland inlet, which can also be extended to other inlets.

Fluvial reservoirs are difficult to model due to the high permeability contrast between the sandstone bodies and the overbank deposits and the complex geometry of the permeable (sandstone bodies) and impermeable zones (overbank deposits). A set of fluvial meandering models has been generated using FLUMY. The models represent a range of Net-to-Gross ratios and sandstone body geometries. In order to quantify the effect of sample size on effective properties, the models are evaluated based on the statistical moments of the probability distributions of porosity and single-phase permeability as a function of sample size. The porosity and permeability show a high spread at small sample volumes, but the spread reduces as the sample size increases. A normalized standard deviation, the coefficient of variation, has been used as a criterion for the variability of the probability distributions. The coefficient of variation of the porosity and the horizontal permeability show a monotonic decline as a function of sample size. The coefficient of variation of the vertical permeability does not show a monotonic decline. This is caused by a drastic decrease of the mean of the vertical permeability with increasing sample volume. The mean of the horizontal permeability also decreases with increasing sample size, but to a lesser extent. The mean of the probability distributions of permeability as a function of sample size converges much earlier than the standard deviation. This convergence indicates that we can determine the effective properties at the Representative Elementary Volume (REV), without reaching REV. The convergence of the mean could potentially be used as a criterion for the relevant spatial scale of upscaling from the fine scale static model to the coarse scale model. Furthermore, if cells are uncorrelated at a scale where the mean of the permeability is not a function of sample volume anymore, random attribution of properties can be used to populate dynamic grid cells.

Accelerated sea level rise (SLR) is predicted to have multiple adverse impacts on the coastal zone, aggravating phenomena such as coastal erosion on sandy coasts. For climate change adaptation planning and informing policy, morphodynamic changes occurring at coastlines are becoming increasingly important. In this study, a calibrated Delft3D model forced by real-time wave conditions, was applied to simulate and assess the morphological behaviour of the Delfland coast in response to accelerated SLR over a 30-year time period. The calibrated Delft3D model uses a novel acceleration technique called brute-force merged (BFM) proposed by Luijendijk et al. (2019), which enables the modelling of multi-decadal predictions, with significant gain in computational effort. An assumption of the study was that no nourishments take place, i.e. no additional sediment supply. The Sand Engine (Zand Motor in Dutch), currently located along this coast was also excluded from the model, thereby assuming a straight unnourished coastline. A selection of six SLR scenarios was simulated, including a no SLR scenario used as the reference case. The chosen scenarios covered the full bandwidth of accelerated SLR projections translated for the Dutch coast up to 2100, assuming increased mass loss from the Antarctic ice sheet, a hypothesis proposed by DeConto and Pollard (2016). These projections therefore exceed those presented in the IPCC AR5. Based on the recent literature, the SLR rates selected, ranging from 3 mm/year to 120 mm/year, are assumed plausible and useful for the modelling study. Model outputs that are assessed include erosion and sedimentation plots, and volume changes, particularly erosion volumes. Analysis shows that no major change to the general coastal system behaviour occurs due to accelerated SLR; erosive sections in the south remain erosive and accretive regions in the northern part remain accretive. This is influenced mainly by gradients in alongshore sediment transport and presence of structures. Erosion volumes increase with higher SLR rates, indicating an increase in erosion rate due to accelerated SLR. Volume changes were calculated in different alongshore sections and in different depth/elevation zones in the cross-shore direction in order to identify regions more vulnerable to accelerated SLR. It is determined that the southern section is most impacted by SLR causing increased erosion, particularly in the subtidal zone. Processes driving the observations and trends are discussed in the study. With significant SLR, dune erosion also occurs due to water levels and waves being able to reach higher elevations. The dunes along the Delfland coast are the primary sea defence which protects the hinterland from flooding, therefore it is critical to consider potential dune erosion due to accelerated SLR. Implications of the model study’s findings are briefly discussed, in the context of coastal maintenance policy and implementation of nourishments. Evaluating the added value of Delft3D as a coastal impact model is another objective of the study. Delft3D shows a number of benefits, including detailed analysis at multiple spatio-temporal scales. Another is the inclusion of transport processes in both alongshore and cross-shore directions, which is not the case for the Bruun Rule or 1-D coastline models. A limitation of Delft3D is that it does not include aeolian transport processes, and so dune growth cannot be simulated.

The upper reservoir intervals of the Lower Jurassic Åre Formation in the Heidrun Field (Offshore mid-Norway) are very heterolithic and have the lowest oil recovery factor of the field despite significant amounts of remaining reserves. One of these reservoir zones is the formation Åre 6.2, which is mainly composed of tide-dominated heterolithic channel belt deposits. It contains particular layers that have excellent properties with permeabilities up to 10 Darcy. These layers are predicted to affect the production results as they can act as ‘thief zones’ within the low permeable heterolithic facies causing large quantities of water to flow through, leading to poor sweep efficiency and early water breakthrough. This study focuses on constructing conceptual depositional models of the Åre 6.2 and building detailed geological models to investigate the effect of the thief zones on overall fluid flow predictions. Conceptual depositional models were constructed by determining the characteristics of the reservoir and its depositional environment. Seven cored wells were used as the primary data to interpret lithofacies and facies associations. The study showed that Åre 6.2 mainly consisted of structured sandstones and heterolithic lithofacies with features that indicate that tidal process play an important role in the deposition. The influence of tidal process on deposition is further exemplified by the identification of two different types of channel facies associations, which are tidal and distributary channels. The thief zones were found in both facies associations, suggesting that the thief zones were formed during high freshwater discharge into the channels supplying coarse sandy material influx during a phase of high-energy deposition. To make detailed models of the tidal and distributary channels, multiscale modeling techniques were utilized to better represent the reservoir heterogeneities at the lithofacies and facies association scales. At the lithofacies scale, models were built in SBEDTM and the upscaled values of each lithofacies were obtained by applying the Representative Element Volume (REV) concept. The upscaled values were then used as input in the facies association scale models in order to represent the heterogeneities at the lithofacies scale to the next heterogeneity level. This step is essential since heterogeneities at a smaller scale may affect reservoir flow properties. Two different channel models were built in ReservoirStudioTM based on the conceptual depositional model and using outcrop analogue data from the Gule Horn Formation (Neill Klinter Group) in the Albuen area (Greenland). Flow-based upscaling was used to analyze the model uncertainties and determine a proper upscaling grid size. Finally, streamline simulations were performed to identify the effect of the thief zones. The simulation confirms that the thief zones influence fluid flow in the reservoir zone significantly as most flow was concentrated in the thief zones.

While waves are propagating towards the shore and are interrupted by an obstacle like a groyne, they will turn around the tip into the sheltered region of the groyne. This sheltered region is called the shadow zone and contains a reduced wave climate. The turning of the waves is based on the lateral transfer of wave energy along the wave crest, caused by a gradient in wave height. This process is called diffraction. Breaking wave heights and angles inside the shadow zone will be influenced significantly because of wave diffraction. Since variations in breaking wave height and/or angle are responsible for gradients in the alongshore sediment transport, should the process of wave diffraction be taken into account while simulating the shoreline evolution in the vicinity of a groyne. Different methods were found to incorporate the effects of wave diffraction inside the coastline model ShorelineS. The improved model performance of ShorelineS regarding a real-world case study is addressed by using the shoreline of Constanta, Romania. The consequence of incorporating wave diffraction effects onto the shoreline evolution of Constanta is demonstrated in detail. The accretion close to the Southern groyne and erosion near the Northern groyne is visible in the numerical result of the improved model. Therefore, matching the observed anti-clockwise rotation of the coastal cell. Without accounting for diffraction effects, this matching result was not achievable. The transition zone width is found to be an important factor in determining the coastline shape affected by diffraction. After calibration of this parameter, the numerical result demonstrated to be in almost perfect agreement with the observed coastline shape. The root mean square error and bias reduced with factors of 5.5 and 5 compared to the numerical result excluding diffraction effects.