In the Netherlands, the coastal dunes are essential to protect the country against flooding. However, the rising sea levels increase the risk of flooding along these sandy shores. Moreover, due to a combination of human and natural activities, dune erosion has increased and will continue to do so in the coming decades. Besides flood protection, the Dutch shoreline is important for preserving biodiversity, the generation of drinking water and recreation. In recent year, the number of recreational buildings on the beach, such as bars and holiday homes has increased. This is relevant because previous studies show that such beach buildings affect the wind flow and limit aeolian transport of sediment towards the dunes.

This research studies the impact of beach house configurations on dune-ward sediment transport to limit the adverse effects on dune development. We use CFD simulations to study the wind flow around a 3D model of a beach with holiday houses, based on a section of the Noordwijk beach in the Netherlands. We implement the CFD software OpenFOAM to solve the RANS equations for turbulent, steady-state flow. The sediment transport that occurs is calculated using the wind direction and speed near the ground surface of the solution.

The study consists of multiple 3D models in which the placement of the houses is varied systematically, to study the effects of beach house configurations. Variations are made by rotating houses, individually or within a row, and changing the distance between the houses and dunes. We determine the annual effect on sediment transport by applying varying wind conditions based on historical wind data from Noordwijk.
As we have many simulations to run, and all need different parameters and settings, we automated the process. First, a PostgreSQL database is used to store all requirements for the CFD simulations, the metadata and the results the simulations give. Then, a Python script links the information stored in the database to the correct settings in OpenFOAM. This way, many simulations are run in a row, and the results area to compare.

The results show that rotating the houses individually towards the prevailing wind direction appears to improve the amount of dune-ward sediment that takes place, compared to beach houses placed perpendicular to the shore. Rotating a row of houses as a whole has a limited effect on the amount of sediment transport. However, combining the rotation of the row of houses and the houses individually towards the prevailing wind direction shows the best improvement in sediment transport. Changing the distance between the houses and the dune foot so that a row of houses forms a funnel shape pointing towards the dunes also yields promising results.
Because we use a simplified model and do not take factors such as moisture levels or fetch distance into account, the results of this study overestimate the amount of sediment transport that takes place and might not quite resemble the reality. Further research using scale models or wind tunnels is necessary to confirm the suggestions made in this thesis.

Open dumping, open burning and burying of municipal solid waste (MSW) can be the cause environmental and public health issues. These practices are more prevalent in developing countries such as Mexico,where proper waste management systems are not present. Considering the environmental and health issues, it is therefore important to minimise the number of open dumps in Mexico. The construction ofsanitary landfills is regarded as the best alternative to open dumping since it is the a cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution.

An important part of constructing sanitary landfills is the selection of potential locations for these wastefacilities where investment will be made to build them. In order to select these locations first the weakspots need to be located. Weak spots are areas that do not have enough (proper) waste managementservices. Since Mexico does not have a national solid waste information system, a method to locate theseweak spots needs to be developed. With the use of the weak spots a method can be developed to select the potential locations for sanitary landfills that also takes the social, economical and legal constraintsinto account. The following research question is formulated: What are the weak spots in the current waste infrastructure network in Mexico and, based on this, where should strategic investment be madeto improve waste disposal? By answering this question, information will be provided on the issues withthe management of waste in Mexico with a focus on the areas of the weak spots and the locations where investment can be made to develop new sanitary landfills.

To detect the weak spots, a set of factors of different scenarios were developed, scored, overlaid, and visualised in maps. Regions that have the lowest score were detected as weak spots. To select the potential locations for investment in new sanitary landfills a spatial decision support system (SDSS) was developed and implemented as a QGIS plugin. The weak spots that corresponded to urban areas were used for analysis in the SDSS. This is due to the fact that it is more economically beneficial to construct sanitary landfills in urban areas.

The weak spot analysis showed that the southern region of Mexico, especially the state of Oaxaca, hadthe highest deficiencies in waste infrastructure. With the output from the QGIS SDSS plugin we are able to determine potential areas for new sanitary landfills in an automated manner.

This research has resulted in the visualisation of the weak spots in the Mexican waste infrastructure and the selection of potential locations where investment can be made for the construction of new sanitary landfills. The approach for locating the weak spots of the waste infrastructure can be used to find the weak spots in other types of infrastructure on a state and country scale in Mexico. The QGIS SDSS plugin could also be used to locate sanitary landfills in Mexico that violate the standards and regulations. The approach used to develop methods to detect the weak spots in the waste infrastructure and select potential locations for investment into new sanitary landfills could be used as a model for other countries to develop their specific approaches.