In the coming decades, the storm surge barriers in the Netherlands will reach their end of the designed life time of 100 years. Therefore, the Dutch storm surge barriers are preparing for major renovations. Next to this, as a result of the expected sea level rise, the hydraulic loads and the number of necessary closures will exceed the original design requirements. This gives urgency to look further than an one-to-one replacement or conservation and it a good moment to include changes in functional requirements. The functional end of life is, however, typically surrounded by large uncertainties. Since storm surge barriers bear multiple functions (e.g. hydraulic safety, the environment, shipping and road traffic infrastructure connection), changes in conditions can lead in several ways to the functional end of life. In this paper we explore what aspects should be added to current asset management strategy to include the functional performance of our hydraulic structures.

Next decades, many hydraulic structures in the Netherlands will reach their end of life. Timely mitigation requires accurate estimates of the end of life. This appears however hard since many external drivers and multiple functions may lead in many plausible combinations to insufficient technical or functional performance. As a consequence, a complete integrated assessment is rather labour intensive and time consuming. This study shows a quick-scan of the end of life of five storm surge barriers and three other critical hydraulic structures in the Netherlands. The quick-scan reveals that sea-level rise is the major driver for the end of life of most coastal hydraulic structures since it impacts both the free discharge capacity and the flood protection function. Yet, the strategy to adapt the river delta to climate change may be even more important. Future developments are however such uncertain that the life time assessments may prove especially useful for the exploration of adaptive asset management strategies and to a lesser extent as an accurate planning tool.