Deltares - R&D Highlights 2009

Safety – living safely in the delta scope The low altitude of the Netherlands means that protection against fl ooding is a permanent concern. Soil subsidence and climate change are exacerbating the problem. In addition, we are making more and more demands on the spatial quality of the country. Smart dikes, improvements in our understanding of the real strength of, and loads on, the dikes, the relaxation of restrictions on water fl ows, warning systems and non-technical alternatives in the eventuality that things go wrong aſt er all: these things make up the heart of the research programme. background Protection against fl oods is the day-to-day, ongoing and primary concern of us all. The issue, too, is how to maintain safety in this area in the long term, particularly taking into account increasing socio-economic pressure on the available space and the capital invested in this country. Water safety and spatial quality in our country require answers at a range of temporal and spatial scales. In the past, water safety policies in the Netherlands have been based primarily on the construction of water defences: structures to limit the risk of fl ooding, even at extremely high water levels. This approach makes it essential to assess the quality of the defence structures and to understand the associated failure mechanisms in dikes. It is characterised by the restricted spatial and time scales. More and more, attention is focusing on the combination of both fl ooding probability and secondary damage: the fl ood risk. 18

So water safety cannot be dissociated from spatial and socioeconomic developments in the hinterland. Requirements in the area of water defences, water management, the economy, transport, nature, recreation and housing demand a coherent, integrated approach. This amounts to a more large-scale approach in both space and time. The ongoing increase in the fl ow of data does not make decisionmaking easier, especially when a calamity is imminent. Further development of the general tools and techniques used in operational fl ood forecasting systems for rivers and coastal systems is needed to improve the quality of the forecasts. Improvements in the quality of fl ood forecasting should lead to better risk analysis (e.g. dike strength) and improved adaptation times in relation to protection strategies and emergency measures. In the coastal zone, sand is the vital functional element. The current coastal management policy uses replenishment to keep the amount of sand in the coastal area up to standard, maintaining or even enhancing safety in a natural way, and responding to the consequences of rising sea levels sustainably and fl exibly. The road maps in this core domain are New standardisation, Real-time fl ood risk management, Coastal systems behaviour, System tools for preparation and response and Innovative design concepts for water defences. 19

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