News

From 10 to 13 June 2025, UNESCO celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) at its headquarters in Paris. This milestone event brought together global leaders in water science to reflect on five decades of progress and to shape the future of sustainable water management. Deltares was honoured to take part in this important occasion, which also marked 60 years of UNESCO’s commitment to advancing water sciences.

Will swimming, surfing, or a day at the beach make us more likely to get ill in the future? Climate change affects so-called pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. The European project BlueAdapt is investigating whether we can already start preparing based on current knowledge. The focus is on gaining more insight into Europe’s coastal regions.

As part of the North Sea Two (NS2) project, Oceans of Energy, Deltares, TNO, and DNV carried out unique testing, simulating North Sea wave conditions in the Deltares Delta Flume. The results, available in a newly-published white paper, offer validations for structural performance for floating solar systems with solar modules at the seawater-level and recommendations to industry experts on the next steps towards certification of offshore solar.

The energy transition, cleaner water, healthy soils and less greenhouse gases: the Netherlands is facing far-reaching challenges. Meeting them requires an in-depth understanding of exactly what is happening in our soil and our water. In the Delta-lab at Deltares in Delft, which opened today, experts look at how pollutants behave on a microscopic level, how greenhouse gases are released from wet soils and the effect of sustainable energy generation on groundwater and soil.

Where are fresh and saline groundwater located and at what depth? And where are the clay layers that protect the underlying groundwater? This is important information for provincial authorities, water managers, water authorities, farmers and nature managers. To establish a picture, measurements will be made with a helicopter from August this year until February next year in the southern, western and northern Netherlands.

Mangroves are important for protecting tropical coastlines against high waves and flooding. New research by Deltares and TU Delft, published in Communications Earth & Environment, shows that broad mangrove forests more than 500 metres wide can reduce incoming wave energy by around 75% or more. This emphasises the importance of preserving and expanding these ecosystems.

With our knowledge of water and the subsurface, Deltares contributes to safe and sustainable living in deltas worldwide. We work every day to have a positive impact on people, the environment and society, which means that corporate social responsibility is in our DNA. The work we do also has an impact on people, the environment and society, sometimes unintentionally. Our first Corporate Social Responsibility report shows how we minimise that undesirable impact.

Tropical storms and cyclones have already affected hundreds of millions of people in coastal areas worldwide. Extreme weather can have a devastating impact on coastal communities. To improve readiness, detailed information about all the factors that cause flooding, such as storm surges, rainfall and waves, is essential. These factors often interact in complex ways. New research by Tim Leijnse of Deltares and VU Amsterdam, who will receive his PhD today, offers a solution to this challenge.

Nova Innova and Deltares are launching a trial with the world’s first floating voice of nature. That voice is concealed in glass spheres that float on the water, magnifying the life and movement in the water.

From 1 May 2025, innovative start-ups and SMEs can apply for the new edition of the Deltares SME Challenge. This annual challenge offers Dutch entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to further develop and test their design concepts—with expert support and access to cutting-edge research facilities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers significant opportunities to enhance sustainable water management worldwide, yet integrating these technologies also presents a series of challenges. In partnership with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP), Deltares has released a new publication that explores the current state of AI and Machine Learning (ML) applications in water management.

Seven European cities and partners have worked intensively together for the past three and a half years in the EU project REACHOUT. The goal was to develop climate services that truly connect to real-world practice in cities. The result is a versatile and accessible Triple-A toolkit that helps municipalities analyse climate risks, formulate Ambitions and plan concrete Actions. This approach is now available via the Triple-A Toolkit platform.