News

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.

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.

The chance of extreme saltwater intrusion in estuaries worldwide will increase by ten to twenty percent by 2100 as a result of changing river flows and rising sea levels caused by climate change. This was calculated by researchers from Utrecht University and Deltares in a joint publication in Nature Communications. This study emphasises the need to include the salinisation of estuaries in the approach to climate adaptation.

Healthy urban soils provide important ecosystem services, such as water storage, stability and natural purification. New EU legislation requires all member states to monitor soil health, including that of urban areas. At the Deltares campus in Delft, we are investigating how this can be monitored and determined.

The international Sava River basin is getting a major upgrade in water management with the launch of the project for renewal of the Sava Forecasting and Warning System. The renewed system will not only ensure insight into flood risks but also provide the region with important information during hydrological droughts particularly relevant to the inland navigation along the Sava. The project led by Deltares and carried out through the International Sava River Basin Commission.

Deltares recently completed a successful test on a glass water defence which will soon be installed in the village of Belfeld in the Dutch province of Limburg. The water defence, an innovative solution for flood protection that does not block the view for local residents, was tested in the Deltares Delta Flume.

The coast is constantly in motion due to currents, waves and wind. But how do sand grains move as they travel along the coast? The SedTRAILS model, developed by Deltares and Delft University of Technology, converts the results of traditional coastal models into individual sediment pathways. We're using this new approach to map sediment pathways: routes that grains of sand travel.

Our 2024 impact report is now online. In this impact report we present five stories centred around five ambitious moonshot goals, showing our activities, cooperations and research contributing to societal impact.

To identify irrigated areas Deltares and WUR (Wageningen University & Research) researchers have set up a novel framework that combines hydrological modeling and satellite observations of land surface temperature (LST). Their approach provides valuable insights that can lead to more sustainable and efficient water management practices, starting in the Rhine River basin.

Deltares has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Thailand’s Royal Irrigation Department (RID), Chulalongkorn University (CU), and the Faculty of Engineering at Kasetsart University (KU). Over the coming years, we will work together to exchange knowledge, improve technical skills, and work on relevant projects.