‘The Dutch are not going to lose against the sea’, is a commonly accepted quote of the citizens of The Netherlands. Having developed a country below sea level, Dutch people are aware of the challenges of the sea, but are committed in an endless fight against it. Nowadays, with global warming increasing, the challenge for them is even bigger. Sea level rises threateningly, and the estimations about the future conditions are characterized by deep uncertainty. For that reason, the Dutch government identified 13 weak links in the coastal defence system, one of which is the area of interest for this research, the Scheveningen district and its surroundings, belonging to the Municipality of The Hague. Apart from its vulnerable coastal defence position, the area is densely populated and the most popular beach destination of the country. The aim of this research is to provide water safety solutions in the long term (until 2100), while taking into account the stakeholders demands. Secondly, compare the designs and identify specific aspects in which decision makers in the Municipality of The Hague would be forced to make compromises in order to implement a final solution for the project. Thirdly, investigate on additional measures that can complement and optimize the water safety design. For that reason, a background research was conducted through literature reviewing, interviewing experts and stakeholders, in order to collect information about possible sea level rise scenarios, existing boundaries of the system and stakeholders perspectives. The water safety issue was tackled with nature-based solutions following the principles of Integrated Coastal Zone Management by Building with Nature a framework that delivers solutions for sustainable infrastructure. Two solutions packages were obtained. The first one uses a Preserve strategy, attempting to maintain the current coastline position with soft (sandy) interventions where possible, keeping construction costs relatively low. The second package uses an Advance strategy, extending land in the seaward direction, and creating a large space for the development of natural habitats and human activities. To evaluate and compare the resulting designs, a Multi Criteria Analysis was conducted according to five criteria: Recreation and tourism, Social values, Ecology, Economy and Finance, Sustainability, Design. The goal of this part of the analysis is not the selection of a winner option but the assistance to the decision making process by providing strengths and weaknesses of each option, as well as a comparison between the two in terms of the above mentioned criteria. From this point on, this research identified a total of eight aspects where the decision maker, the Municipality of The Hague, would be forced to make some sort of compromises between different interests, in order to implement the project. The evaluation process resulted in a slight preference for the Advance strategy as the most integrated solution package. The optimization of this design was realised and four additional measures were proposed, leading to a more holistic proposal with more chances to bring acceptance among all stakeholders involved.

This report investigates the long-term morphological changes caused by the DELTA 21 project at the northern side, including the large scale morphological development with Delft3D model and at local scale the coastline deformation with UNIBEST-CL model. The necessity of the layout design improvement of DELTA 21 is analyzed by comparing different results in case of the improved layout and the original layout. On local scale, the model results indicate that shoreline retreat will happen around the head of Valmeer and large amount of sediment is lost in that section in case of both original layout and improved layout. And the improvement in the layout of DELTA 21 project has remarkable influence on coastline evolution and sediment balance. On large scale, a scour hole near the most western location of the Valmeer and a large submerged sand bar at the northern side of Valmeer are developed after 20 years. In case of original layout, the scour hole gives a larger maximum depth. It can be concluded that the improved layout of DELTA 21 gives better performance on both large scale and local scale.

In recent years, the awareness of climate change and sea level rise has grown. Especially in low lying countries like the Netherlands, with a large river delta with a high economical and natural value, extreme variations in water levels will have great impact. Former used solutions proofed to be expensive and in some cases disturbed the dynamics of nature. Consequently, the need of new solutions of flood protections grows in which the negative impact on nature environments should be limited. The Delta21 plan proposes a future-proof design for the Dutch Southwest delta, that aims to tackle the growing need for flood protection, while contributing to nature and storing energy all at once. However, the coastal structure, located in the Haringvliet mouth, is likely to produce large disturbances in the environment. Since the Haringvliet mouth is located in the 'Voordelta', a Natura2000 area, it is essential to study the initial response of the proposed interventions to the hydraulics and morphodynamics that shape the system. Hence, the objective of this research is to determine the initial impact of the Delta21 plan on the large scale multi-year average hydro- and morphodynamics of the Northern Voordelta. To this end, a literature review was performed to analyse the evolvement of the Northern Voordelta since the closure of the Grevelingen and Haringvliet estuaries by the Delta Works in 1970. This study showed that the closure caused the tidal prisms to reduce strongly resulting in the tidal propagation to change from cross­shore to longshore. The remaining ebb tidal deltas started to follow the characteristics of a short basin, in which water levels offshore and nearshore are in phase. Flow velocities reduced strongly and channels started to fill up, at the foreshore waves started to dominate the morphodynamics. Waves began to 'bulldoze' the former ebb-tidal deltas onshore, creating shore parallel sandbars like the Bollen van de Ooster and the Hinderplaat. Besides, the construction of the Maasvlakte 2 triggered further sedimentation of the Haringvliet mouth, landward of the Hinderplaat, by sheltering the area from NW waves. The initial response of the system to Delta21 has been studied using a short-term morphostatic 2DH computational model simulation. The complexity of the processes inside the study area caused the need of the process based model Delft3D, in which flow, waves and sediment transport computations can be carried out. To reduce computational times, the applied modelling setup made use of reduction techniques and schematisations of the hydraulic forcing, while maintaining the natural character of the system. The computed flow and sediment transport patterns were used as indicators, in order to predict and compare the feedback of the system of the various scenarios. Model results showed that the tidal propagation inside the Haringvliet estuary, which is opened in the Delta21 scenario, changes to cross-shore again. Similar to the situation prior to the closing, the area will start to follow the characteristics of a long-basin. This implies that water levels in the estuary are out of phase with the offshore water levels. A cross-shore tide dominated flow prevails in the area, while the Grevelingen delta remains unchanged in the Delta21 scenario. The cross-shore action influences the offshore wave- and setup-driven residual currents. In the same offshore area, the Delta21 pump discharge develops a similar cross-shore acting influence area. Model results further showed that the Delta21 geometry causes a 'tidal squeeze', similar to the present-day processes around Maasvlakte 2. Altogether, the large disturbances to the hydrodynamic forcing, triggers morphodynamic activity. Concluding from literature and the model results, this leads to the erosion and formation of ebb and flood channels in the Haringvliet mouth and the formation of an ebb- and flood-tidal delta around the inlet. Processes in and around the ebb-tidal delta adjust towards a balance between the wave and tidal action. These findings agree with the known processes of a mixed-energy tidal inlet system that is adjusting towards a dynamic equilibrium. Conceptualised results are shown in Figure 1. Concluding, the analysis on the initial response of the system, as well as the expected initial dynamic behaviour, provides useful insight and a good basis for future optimisation studies on the Delta21 design. This study reveals the disturbed areas caused by the presence of Delta2 l and relates it to the contribution of the various hydrodynamic processes. Furthermore, the development of this type of study can be significantly relevant to the evaluation of other preliminary studies on solutions to sea level rise.

Chile is heavily dependent on international trade, making its port infrastructure crucial for its economic development. Projections show that container freight demand is growing rapidly. To cope with the growing demand, an expansion for the port of San Antonio has been proposed. However, current expansion plans have faced opposition due to environmental and social impacts. This research investigates current social issues and the technical feasibility of harnessing natural sediment transport to create a Building with Nature port expansion solution.