News

Floods are often seen as unpredictable events. New research by Wageningen University & Research, Deltares and international knowledge organisations shows that, in many areas, coastal flooding actually occurs with striking regularity at fixed times of the day. Due to the influence of the tides, flooding in some cities consistently occurs around the morning rush hour, during office hours or, conversely, in the middle of the night.

On 20 and 21 August, Deltares will take part in an AI hackathon in Scheveningen, organised by Team JAJO, a professional sailing team focused on offshore racing campaigns and record attempts, and DutchSail. During the event, participants will work on solutions to a real-world challenge: improving performance and decision-making during an ambitious sailing record attempt crossing the North Sea from Lowestoft to IJmuiden under 5:36:18.

Researchers from Deltares and Wageningen University & Research have taken an important step towards better understanding the impact of human water use on the flow of the Rhine. By incorporating water abstractions for industry, households, agriculture and livestock farming into a high-resolution hydrological model, they have demonstrated that human activity has a noticeable impact on both low-water and high-water conditions. The results have been published in Water Resources Research.

New research by Deltares shows that thirteen substances with a potential industrial origin are classified as critical or potentially critical for water quality in the Port of Rotterdam under the current Kaderrichtlijn Water (Water Framework Directive). The findings provide a clearer picture of the challenge facing port-based industry. A logical next step is to determine the relative contribution of industry compared with other sources.

Sustainable energy technologies such as solar panels, aquathermal energy and subsurface energy storage affect water, soil and air – and therefore the ecosystems that depend on them. Research shows that floating solar panels can reduce primary production in water: the process by which plants and plankton convert sunlight into energy, forming the basis of almost all aquatic life. The effects of underground thermal energy storage and combined solar and wind energy systems appear, for now, to be limited or location-specific.

With its second Corporate Social Responsibility, or sustainability, report, Deltares shows the steps it is taking to further reduce its impact on people and the environment.

Climate change is increasing the likelihood of drought in the Netherlands. This presents national and regional water managers with increasingly complex choices. A recent study investigated how decision-support tools are used in the context of increasing drought and what role they play in decision-making. Groundwater expert Liduin Bos-Burgering of Deltares was one of the researchers.

In July 2021, Southern Limburg, the Netherlands, was hit by an exceptional amount of rainfall. Streams and rivers burst their banks, homes and businesses were flooded, and infrastructure was damaged. In Belgium and Germany, the consequences were even more severe and there were casualties. Now, five years on, we have a better understanding of how this event came about, how water systems responded, and what lessons we can learn from it.

The intelligent Modeling Lab for Weather, Climate, and Water (iML-WKW) is a new initiative by Deltares, KNMI and Rijkswaterstaat: a national facility that provides the infrastructure for the development and application of new computational models for weather, climate and water. For the first time in the Netherlands, these three domains are working together structurally on a single platform. The programme is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs through the Applied Research Facilities (FTO) scheme. It officially launched on 1 July 2026 during a gathering at Deltares in Delft.

New research by Deltares and Universities of Delft, Twente, Leipzig and Vienna shows how artificial intelligence can help monitor the health of ecosystems and their role in the carbon cycle across different landscapes -without the need for site-specific calibration.

As climate-related disasters become more frequent, effective recovery planning is becoming increasingly important, especially for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). This study examined recovery needs and actions after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Sint Maarten (2017), using a SIDS recovery framework to assess whether key sectors and recovery priorities were adequately addressed.

Researchers from Deltares and VU University Amsterdam have developed a framework that helps managers of critical infrastructure make better-informed decisions by comparing the performance climate adaptation measures. The model captures not only direct damage, but also the economic impacts of disruptions across networks.