The Netherlands has suffered form three successive dry summers resulting in a lowering of the groundwater table, causing water shortage. Also in the area of Water BoardDe Dommel, locatedwithin the province of Brabant, water shortage is a common problem. This results in water abstraction restrictions for farmers in the crop season every year. With climate change the precipitation pattern in the Netherlands will change, resulting in longer dry periods during summertime. Water Board De Dommel is searching for strategies to decrease this water shortage. These strategies need to be tested for future climate scenarios. This research tests different interventions for two specific areas within De Dommel. These areas differ in land-use, location in the catchment, geo(hydro)logy and infrastructure. This research answers the following research question: How does the groundwater of two different areas within Waterschap De Dommel react to different interventions
to prevent water shortage in long-termfuture scenarios?
To find the answer to this research question a stationary groundwater model (iMOD) is used. In this model
the different interventions are tested with four climate scenarios from the KNMI. These interventions take place in the top layers of the subsoil. Next to these interventions also three abstraction scenarios are modeled, to see the effect of changes in deeper aquifer layers. The interventions are tested with three signals from the model: 1) the head of the first aquifer layer, 2) the water balance for both areas for the first aquifer layer as well as the first four aquifer layers combined and 3) the flow paths. Because models include uncertainties and assumptions, expert judgement is included to test the interventions. The expert judgment is based on historical maps and the location of the interventions. At the end of the research a non-stationary model is used to test the "Brook swamp" intervention. This result is compared to the results of the stationary model of this intervention. The results show that changes in the top layers of the subsoil have almost no effect on the groundwater in the deeper layers for De Pielis area. More downstream in the catchment, at the Landschotse Heide area, this effect is bigger, because of changes in the upstream area. In the top soil layers the groundwater reacts positive for most interventions for both areas resulting in more water availability. Also in the top layers the effect is bigger at the Landschotse Heide area than at De Pielis area. With the non-stationary model results the groundwater reacts more positive to the "Brook swamp" intervention than for the stationary model. A non-stationary model is therefore better to see how the groundwater reacts to seasonal dependent interventions. The groundwater reacts differently per areas as well as per intervention. In both areas the groundwater does react positively to most interventions. For the Landschotse Heide area the groundwater reacts more positive than for De Pielis area. For both areas the "higher water level" and "closed ditches" interventions show the most positive reactions of the groundwater. Based on these results the Water Board is advised to research the effect of enriching the top layer of De Pielis, to see if these top layers can then hold more water. For the Landschotse Heide the Water Board is advised to decide if agriculture or nature is more important in that area, because these cannot coincide, and reach all demands, in the way it is set-up now. ... Read more

It is becoming increasingly clear that the current climate policy is not beneficial to our planet. Climate change is having several negative effects on the planetary environment and its health (Rig- not et al., 2011). Among these negative effects is the rise of the seawater level (Jevrejeva et al., 2014). Efforts are being made to counter this with various actions, such as the Paris agreement (Levine & Steele, 2021). However, there is a chance that the agreement will turn out differently than planned (Meinshausen, 2016). It is therefore important, and socially most-relevant, to think about what to do if this happens. This means that alternatives are being looked into and examined. A drastic alternative is the Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED). NEED is a dam that consists of two parts to protect Northern Europe against the rising of the sea level. The idea for this radical innovation, to create a dam consisting of two parts, comes from oceanographer Sjoerd Groeskamp and engineer Joakim Kjellsson and came to life in 2019. The first part is the southern part which runs from France to England, with a length of 161 kilometers. The second part is the northern part which runs from Scotland to Norway, with a length of 476 kilometers (Groeskamp & Kjellsson, 2020) ... Read more

Climate change is increasingly becoming more impactful on our society. Recent events such as the extreme rainfall in the summer of 2021 in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands and hurricane Ida in Mississippi (USA), caused severe floodings and damages in these areas. Climate change, in turn, leads to an increase in sea level rise, making flood prone areas more at risk for floodings. However, the magnitude of rise in sea level is of an uncertain nature. This bolsters the idea of applying adaptive designing methods on flood defence systems to tackle the uncertainties decision makers and engineers face in the wake of climate change, whilst finding a balance between safety and expenditures. In this research, I apply adaptive design methods on the Rhine-Meuse estuary to develop an adaptive flood defence system in a system-to-structure approach. Thus, to converge onto a flood defence structure, three design loops are considered. In the first loop multiple adaptive systems are designed with the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways, showing various flood defence options and other required measures to allow the functioning of the systems, as a function of sea level rise. To select an adaptive system in which an adaptive flood defence structure is developed, a set of preferred pathways (systems) are designed and quantified in three sea level rise scenarios. This leads to a preferred open/closable system in which a storm surge barrier is developed to replace the current Maeslant barrier at the end of its life span. In the second loop a Multi Criteria Analysis is applied to determine a preferable location and barrier type, which resulted in the adoption of a sector gate barrier near Maasdijk. In the third design loop, a reliability model is developed to determine whether designing barrier in an adaptive manner is (economically) beneficial to cope with uncertainties surrounding that of sea level rise and the relative structural failure probability of the barrier over a range of sea level rise scenarios. With the model I was able to produce data about the balance between structural safety of various designs and construction costs of the barrier. Subsequently, the model provided substantiated data about which components of the barrier provide a high level of confidence in returning positive economical benefits when designed as adaptive. The applied method in this thesis shows promise, however, to further develop adaptive designing methods it is important to apply the approach in other, quantitative, case studies.
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Ancient Basrah has been the center of anthropological research studies due to its significance in the development of the culture, politics and economics of the region at the time. Agriculture was one of the main income revenues for ancient Basrah even though it received only an average of 60mm of rainfall per year, indicating a large reliance on irrigation. Therefore, this study focuses on how the landscape would have offered options for irrigated farming. The unique element of this irrigation system is the existence of many large ridges, however their significance is not yet understood.
Within this study a HEC-RAS hydraulic model was set up to explore the hypothesis of the ridges themselves having served the function of elevated agricultural fields. Therefore, multiple scenarios were constructed and sensitivity analysis of the boundary conditions performed, to explore how easily the landscape within the ridge area could be flooded and transformed into a marshland. The results showed that although there were always some dry spots between the fields, most of it was flooded all day and all year round, with a mean water depth ranging from 0.3m to 0.6m. The maximum water depth stayed below 5m in all model variations (except for one sensitivity analysis run), therefore the ridges (which have been hypothesized to originally have been 5 m tall) would have stayed dry.
The main limitations were set by the lack of data available. Except for the elevation data, very little data was available in general and additionally no data from before the 1940’s was available. Therefore, this study should be viewed as an exploration of how the system may have functioned given certain hypothesized boundary conditions. Further research for confirmation of the utilized boundary conditions is necessary to confirm the study results, for example decreasing the river cross-sections by 25% lead to an increase in mean depth of up to 26%. ... Read more

Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) is a webtool-based participation method that is used to increase participation by others than the usual suspects. In PVE, respondents are asked to allocate a budget or points to a portfolio of projects that reflect real policy options, therewith evaluating the projects by stating their preferences. However, the provision of information in PVE on complex subjects such as urban climate adaptation still is characterized by some problems such as susceptibility by framing, misinterpretation and self-selection. In other words, information provision often does not comply with wishes and needs of participants. In this research, two information provision approaches are tested in PVE in an information manipulation experiment. From the research both quantitative as qualitative results are obtained, analysed by using a mixed methods approach. It is observed that the tested information provision approaches do not affect the choices made in PVE or participants’ feeling of empowerment. Moreover, it appears that the wishes and needs for information in PVE vary widely between participants. It is concluded that this heterogeneity should be the starting point in designing information provision. Deliberative participation and progressive disclosure of information are ways to accomplish this. It is recommended to apply these approaches in PVE in future research. ... Read more

It is no secret that the climate is changing, however, the severity and speed of this process is under debate. This leads to the question if and when we need to take action to protect the Netherlands against the effects of climate change. In order to deal with the uncertainties in policy- and decision-making, an adaptive approach is desirable. An option is to apply the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) approach.

The DAPP approach has been applied successfully in several large scale projects. However, less attention is given to the application on small scale areas, and no applications on (small-scaled) polder areas are present. The aim of this report is to answer the following research question: "Is the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways approach suited for improving the adaptivity of polder management, given the uncertainty in climate change effects?" The Zuidplaspolder is used as a case area for application of the DAPP approach. This deep-lying polder is interesting due to its diverse land use, the low elevation levels and already present issues in water management.

Through assessing the potential effects of climate change, conducting interviews, creating a hydrological model and following the steps of the DAPP procedure, a pathway map for the Zuidplaspolder is created. This pathway map is evaluated during focus groups with stakeholders from the Zuidplaspolder case area, as well as actors from a different polder area, being the Schermerpolder. Besides evaluating the applicability of the pathway map, the DAPP approach itself was assessed as well.

The pathway map provided several insights, one being the requirement to start considering actions at present in order to timely cope with issues in the future.
Moreover, it was found that the DAPP approach is suited for improving the adaptivity in polder management, given the uncertainty in climate change effects. The pathway map is a helpful tool for authorities and affected stakeholders within polder areas to explicate upcoming issues. However, a cost-benefit analysis is required for actual, well-informed policy- and decision-making based on the pathway map. Nonetheless, it assists in making decisions more strategically and to explain certain choices in decision-making, which helps in creating support and understanding. Even though there are difficulties in translating large-scale actions and their effects to a smaller scale, the scale of the case area proved not to be a major issue. At last, the DAPP approach is found useful for other polder areas as well. However, a general pathway map cannot be created, since each polder has its unique set of characteristics and stakeholders with mindset on urgency.

When the pathway map is utilised for actual policy- and decision making, the use of an extended model is recommended. Here, probabilistic simulations are suggested, as well as the incorporation of several components that were excluded in this research. For identifying an integral pathway map for Dutch polder areas, it is recommended to research the clustering of polder characteristics on their constraints and related measures. By selecting the clusters that fit a designated case polder, a tailored pathway map can be created. ... Read more

In 2018 The Netherlands experienced the most severe drought since 1976. In response to this, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management established the 'Beleidstafel Droogte'. An external scientific committee took part in the Beleidstafel Droogte. One of their key recommendations was to introduce other drought indicators since the currently used indicator (precipitation deficit) is not sufficient due to limitations. This research investigates what drought indicators can be used in The Netherlands to support anticipative drought management. For water managers, it is crucial to know when and where drought occurs, and how severe this drought is. To reveal the start, severity, and ending of a drought, drought indicators can be used. However, to define drought, regional differences need to be incorporated. Therefore, this research used a case study area to find out what drought indicators can be introduced. Within the boundaries of this area, three different analyses were conducted: 1) hydrological analysis, 2) stakeholder analysis and 3) policy analysis. According to the results, a set of potentially relevant and suitable drought indicators was selected. These drought indicators were tested with focus groups to determine whether they can be used to support anticipative drought management. The area of water board Vallei & Veluwe was selected as the case study area. Concerning the hydrological analysis, multiple methods were applied to obtain a better understanding of the water system and essential hydrological processes. Because of the relative nature of drought, several stakeholders that are directly affected by drought were interviewed. Through semi-structured interviews, information concerning drought was obtained about the stakes and information needs for different stakeholders. Since measures can be taken to anticipate drought or to mitigate drought problems, the policy on drought was considered. In this way, the interrelation between policy on drought and drought indicators was taken into account. The results of the analyses mentioned above led to the following selection of drought indicators: SPI-1 & SPI-3, soil moisture, stream discharge, groundwater levels/isohypse, NDVI and EVI. To test the selected indicators can support anticipative drought management, two focus groups session were organised. For these focus groups, a dry year was reconstructed, which was explored by the participants. Based on the information that was presented to the participants, they were asked whether they would advise taking measures and what their level of alertness was. One group received information from the selected indicators, whereas the other group received information which is used nowadays for drought monitoring. After evaluating and comparing the focus groups, conclusions were drawn. The participants that received information from the selected drought indicators acted more pro-active, because: 1) measures were advised more rapidly, 2) more measures were advised, and maintained applicable for a more extended period, and 3) the level of alertness was significantly higher. Based on these findings, it was concluded that the selected drought indicators support anticipative drought management. ... Read more

Throughout human history deltas attract people and all other sorts of life. Inherent to this increase of delta life is the growth in conflicting values and interests. Coastal systems are not only natural systems, but can also be regarded as societal and ecological systems. Development of the coastal system inevitably leads to changes in these associated societal and ecological systems. Hence, a coast is not only defined by its physical characteristics, but it can also be defined by means of values and interests. The mouth of the Haringvliet in the Southwest of the Netherlands is a striking example where coastal evolution has its impact on societal and ecological systems. Here, a multitude of anthropogenic interferences triggered a regime shift of the coastal system. While continuously developing towards a new equilibrium, coastal evolution has its impact on societal and ecological systems. When it comes to coastal management it is of vital importance to link the changes in the coastal system with values and interest to understand what impact coastal evolution has had and will continue to have on these systems. Applied to the Voorne case, this study demonstrates that it is possible to link the stakeholders values and interests to the physical coastal processes making use of a framework for analysis. ... Read more

Identify the barriers within Arcadis by evaluating internal approaches, knowledge and differences in domains to increase the action perspective in the approach of climate-proof cities. The data was collected by performing 24 interviews and this was analysed and structured using the PRIMO-chain model. ... Read more

Water scarcity has been a growing problem for many places around the world as water usage has been increasing with double the rate of population growth in the twentieth century. As agriculture accounts for 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals, fresh water availability will thus face even greater stress (World Bank, 2013). Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) 2, 6 and 7 (UN, 2015) show that the achievement of water, food, and energy security have been set to a high priority on the global world agenda. However, achieving these goals cannot be done without a proper understanding of the interlinkages between the sectors. As water resources become more stretched, the energy and food sectors’ dependence on water implies that decision-makers in all three domains should increasingly focus on water resource management as part of their policy and practice (“Water, Food and Energy | UN-Water,” n.d.).

In light of this, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations launched the so-called Water Productivity Open-access portal (WaPOR). The portal provides free and open access to processed satellite data that enables monitoring of land and water productivity throughout Africa and the Middle East in near real time. Crop Water Productivity is defined as the crop yield per unit of water consumed, expressed in kg/m3. The objective of this thesis is to explore and assess the available datasets provided by WaPOR to improve current water resource management practices in agriculture in the Eastern Nile Basin countries. The study focuses on the quantification of monthly water withdrawals for irrigation purposes, as well as benchmarking physical water productivity of the main irrigated crops within so-called Agro-Ecological Zones of each country. Throughout this study, crop water productivity is assessed and defined as the amount of agricultural yield that can be attained per unit of water that was allocated for its production, expressed in kg/m3. Data analysis and modeling are the major tools applied to assess spatial variation of water withdrawals and water productivity and subsequently to explain the results. The results are both the quantification of monthly water withdrawals for irrigation purposes, as well as benchmarking crop water productivity of the main irrigated crops within of the countries of the case study: Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Irrigation is considered the largest water-consuming sector in the world and has great potential to become more water-efficient. Rain-fed agriculture, however, does not influence the water balance within a catchment and can thus not improve its water efficiency. Separating irrigated agriculture from rain-fed agriculture can be done by splitting the total evaporation in so-called green and blue water evaporation. Evaporation from green water is the part of the actual evaporation that is derived from rainfall that infiltrated into the soil, while evaporation from blue water is due to the use of human-made infrastructure such as pumps, with the purpose of irrigation. With blue water evaporation, the total water consumption [m3] that was used for irrigation can subsequently be calculated. This can be used to then calculate the water productivity, but also provides insight into the current water management practices of a country. The principle of the Budyko Curve has been applied to obtain blue water evaporation (Budyko, 1974), in compliance with the Water Accounting Plus procedure that was developed at IHE Delft by Wim Bastiaanssen et al. (Bastiaanssen, W.G.M., Coerver, 2017). Finally, water consumption was obtained by multiplying the pixel size with the sum of the monthly blue evaporation. The outcome of these calculations provides a water consumption expressed in m3/month.

Water productivity is calculated by dividing agricultural yield [kg] by the amount of water that was consumed for its production [m3]. Agricultural yield was obtained by multiplying above ground biomass production (AGBP) with a crop harvest index according to the crop that was identified with the phenology data. To determine the specific growing season of a pixel, so-called “Start Of Season” (SOS) and “End OF Season” (EOS) phenology data are combined. By comparing the growing season of the pixel with literature from the FAO crop calendar, the crop type could be determined. The total water consumption between the SOS and EOS dekad numbers is summed to provide the total water consumption during the growing season of the crop. This way Crop Water Productivity is eventually obtained.

Throughout this thesis, the assumption was made that crops could be distinguished and recognized, based on the available phenology data. Considering the fact that a ‘no season’ label is applied when no growing season can be distinguished, agricultural cropland was thought to be identified through this method. However, from the fact that reasonable results complying with the literature are found with the use of the FAO LCC Land Cover Map, it follows that the identification of crops through phenology and blue evaporation data does not provide accurate results. This is especially the case for Ethiopia and to a lesser extent Sudan, likely due to the fact that Egypt has hardly any rainfall and therefore consists almost solely of irrigated agriculture. Similarly, ground truthing should therefore be done regarding crop identification and the presence of irrigation per pixel.

Calculating water withdrawals gave a promising outcome for Egypt, as the calculated water withdrawals were almost similar to the water withdrawals stated by AQUASTAT. However, numbers differed by a factor 10 for both Sudan and Ethiopia. When the FAO WaPOR LCC mask is applied, better results are achieved. The calculated water withdrawals for Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia are lower than FAO AQUASTAT’s numbers. It should, however, be noted that FAO AQUASTAT’s numbers are based on the required water withdrawals, while WaPOR calculates the effective water withdrawals. Lower values could imply low efficiencies of the irrigation systems, which is not uncommon for all three countries. With a typical irrigation efficiency of 60 to 70% (Howell, 2003), the total amount of water withdrawals can be computed with Q_irrigation/0.65 (Kwast et al., 2016). When this is taken into consideration, the results seem promising.

Overlapping phenologies of crops and the indistinct connection with the above ground biomass data are factors that caused unreliable results for the calculation of crop water productivity. The high CWP values that were found in Ethiopia are high compared to the reasonable values found in Egypt and Sudan. This could possibly be due to the fact that the pixels are wrongly identified as irrigated pixels. After all, CWP was assessed for all pixels that contain blue evaporation and was not masked with the FAO WaPOR LCC mask. It is therefore recommended to use an accurate land use mask when CWP is assessed. ... Read more

The northern Ghana climatological conditions are favourable for agricultural production. The annual average precipitation of 800-1250 mm/y is theoretically sufficient for farmers to be year-round self-sufficient. However, the majority of precipitation falls in a 4-month wet season spanning from late May to October. As a consequence, the region is subjected to both seasonal flooding and long periods of drought. The dry season agriculture is of moderate intensity, takes place at small-scale and is groundwater dependent. In the near future it is not unthinkable that extraction exceeds natural recharge and groundwater withdrawal is no longer sustainable in the northern Ghana regions. The small-holder farmers' use of Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) systems can potentially contribute to the continued sustainable use of groundwater in northern Ghana. An ASR system acts as a seasonal bridge. The system recharges flood water and extracts groundwater in periods of drought. A feasibility study on the sustainable use of an ASR system in northern Ghana has been performed by taking present conditions and multiple system improvements into account.

Aquifer tests are carried out at five study sites in northern Ghana to determine local geohydrological conditions. The TTim analytic element modelling environment is used to analyze the obtained groundwater drawdown data and derive parameters for subsurface characteristics. TTim allows for the inclusion of additional model parameters (e.g. borehole storage, well skin resistance and multiple model layers) and outperforms the analytic Theis method in this research. Although some uncertainties are present in the derived subsurface parameters, plausible values for transmissivity (T) and storativity (S) are suggested to be present in the ranges of respectively 1 to 100 (m2/d) and 1e-3 to 1e-2 (-).

The year-round performance of a northern Ghana single ASR system is studied with a MODFLOW model. The potential types of ASR system improvements that are examined are (a) the extension of daily pumping time, (b) the enlargement of the borehole diameter, and (c) the reduction of the well skin resistance. The ASR systems sensitivities to changing environmental conditions are explored by (a) the degradation of well depth by clogging, (b) the shortening of the wet season inundation time, and (c) the reduction of the wet season inundation levels. Research results show that well maintenance is key for the performance of existing (and new) ASR systems. The recharge and discharge volumes can be improved by cleaning of the borehole depth and well screen. In the case of a new ASR system, the performance can positively be influenced by an enlargement of the borehole diameter. Furthermore, the construction of a proper permeable well skin (screen and gravel-pack around the well) can also result in increased system capacities. Despite the imposed options of system modifications, the geographic position of an ASR system remains of utmost importance for system performance. The construction of an ASR system at a location sensitive to flooding (riverbank overtopping or rainfall based) can be beneficial from a sustainable perspective. Recharge volumes are normative for the sustainable use of an ASR system. The recharges are (approximately linear) dependent on the time-span and levels of inundation. Moreover, the research contains soil scenarios, and demonstrates that the ASR system performs significantly better in regions with higher transmissivity (T) values.

To give insight on some financial aspects of an operational ASR system, the obtained (improved) ASR system discharge capacities are transformed to agricultural and financial yields. A subdivision of the dry season into a tomato and a groundnut cropping season demonstrates that financial yields are crop type dependent. The ASR system revenues are dominantly affected by the choice in crop type(s) and crop-specific market prices. The yields are compared to the ASR system pumping costs. The importance of pump selection is demonstrated by the implementation of the Pedrollo 4" submersible pump efficiencies. The use of a pump that is tuned to local conditions can be beneficial for the operational costs of an ASR system. Although no distinctive conclusion on the financial feasibility can be drawn, the examined system improvements are substantially beneficial for the revenues of a northern Ghana ASR system.
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Water level data is a key factor in water systems research. Frequently measuring water levels in areas with tidal influence is especially desirable because it enables observations to follow the rise and fall between minimum and maximum water level. However, a majority of developing countries are not able to measure water levels at the desired time stamp and spatial scale with currently available water level measuring instruments, predominantly due to limited financial resources. Countless reliable instruments exist that measure water levels, although low-budget instruments are few and far between. Literature study showed that the price of water level instruments are not representative of the water level measurement accuracy acquired.
This research focuses on the need for a water level measuring instrument that is low cost, automatic, reliable and suitable for use in developing countries, specifically in Myanmar. In Myanmar, automated water level data collection remains challenging due to limited financial resources. This data collection limitation inhibits Myanmar's ability to optimize the distribution of water resources, potential consequences of poor water resource management include floods and droughts. Key requirements for a water level gauge to be considered suitable for use in developing countries include, simple to operate and repair, made from off the shelf components and operational in remote areas.
We developed an automatic water level gauge incorporating an acoustic distance sensor, which is the type of sensor used for parking assistance in modern cars. To validate the applicability of our instrument, field trials were undertaken in The Netherlands and Myanmar.
Our research objective was achieved and therefore we demonstrated it is possible to build a water level measuring instruments that is cost-efficient, automatic, reliable and suitable for use in developing countries. Although tests results from the Netherlands are promising, further optimization is needed for deployment in Myanmar. ... Read more

The main objective for the research is the development of a comprehensive and easily accessible method assessing the price changes of wheat and cocoa by predicting change in wheat and cocoa production using season key point in the growing season of wheat and cocoa and open precipitation data from ground based weather stations only. The found results are assessed towards their impact on the movement of wheat and cocoa prices. ... Read more