Texel Inlet represents a case study in Dutch coastal management. The imperative to
protect the Dutch coast from flooding has been the central issue in coastal management
for centuries. The damming in 1932 of the Zuiderzee, a major salt water branch of the
Dutch Wadden Sea, formed a fresh water lake –the IJsselmeer – and initiated a process
of coastal sedimentary readjustment of which the Texel Inlet and adjacent coasts are
parts. However, since 1990 Dutch coastal policy is aimed at preventing structural erosion
by maintaining the Dutch coastline at the 1990 position through sand nourishments.
This objectives-based policy and associated sand nourishment strategy now ensures that
south west Texel receives a large portion of the national sand nourishment budget as it
is an erosion hotspot. In this case study, we focus on the evolution of integrated flood
risk management at Texel Island, showing how scientific insights into coastal dynamics
have influenced coastal policy in the past (section 2.4), and how recent advancements in knowledge on the natural dynamics of the system (section 2.3) and on the importance
of stakeholder involvement in environmental management, may play a role in a potential
adaptation of the policy (section 2.5). In essence, the Texel Inlet case study highlights how
a single issue – flood risk management – can dominate in determining the objectives for
coastal management, and highlights the role that new scientific insights can potentially
play in influencing coastal management into the future.

The long-term physical existence of sandy shores critically depends on a balanced sediment budget. From the principles of Building with Nature it follows that a sustainable protection of sandy shores should employ some form of shore nourishment. In the spatial design process of urbanized sandy shores, where multiple functions must be integrated, the knowledge and the prediction of sediment dynamics and beach-dune morphology thus play an essential role. This expertise typically resides with coastal scientists who have condensed their knowledge in various types of morphological models that serve different purposes and rely on different assumptions, thus have their specific strengths and limitations. This paper identifies morphological information needs for the integrated spatial design of urbanized sandy shores using BwN principles, outlines capabilities of different types of morphological models to support this and identifies current gaps between the two. A clear mismatch arises from the absence of buildings and accompanying human activities in current numerical models simulating morphological developments in beach-dune environments.