News

Rising sea levels and increasing human activity is causing the pressure on coasts around the world to increase. Sandy solutions can safeguard water safety, recreation, and nature. The success of these natural solutions depends on their dynamic development, driven by water, wind, vegetation, and humans. An innovation in modelling now makes it possible to make even better predictions of the integral consequences of coastal solutions; from foreshore to dune. This was investigated by Deltares researcher Bart van Westen, together with other scientists.

This week, Deltares' Deltaflume carried out wave tests to investigate the strength of a self-closing flood barrier that will be built along the renewed Scheldt quays in Antwerp. The self-closing flood barrier is hidden underground and rises only in cases of high water levels. The tests went well, which means that the concept of the self-closing dam is ready to protect Antwerp from flooding caused by storm tides on the Scheldt.

Attribution of the effect of global warming on (compound) weather extremes and their impacts is a key challenge in climate research. Within the new European project 'Compound extremes attribution of climate change: towards an operational service' (COMPASS), led by Deltares, a framework will be developed for climate and impact attribution of compound extremes.

What is the most suitable and cost-effective scour protection method for each situation? An overview of measures can now be found in the Handbook of Scour and Cable Protection Methods. This manual is the result of the multi-year research programme Joint Industry Project HaSPro, in which more than 20 companies worked together, initated and coordinated by Deltares.

Our world is changing in terms of both climate and socio-economics. These changes could have a profound impact on the health of humans, animals and the environment, which in combination is often referred to as ‘One Health’. The recent paper ‘Creating the Dutch One Health Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs)’ helps us to see where and when we should intervene.

Rijkswaterstaat commissioned Deltares to investigate the cause of the failure of the construction pit on the Juliana Canal between Berg and Obbicht. The construction pit flooded in February 2023, two months after work began. It was determined that a combination of circumstances eventually led to underflow of the sheet piling (a flow of water through and/or under the sheet piling). Within seven minutes, the construction pit flooded with water from the canal.

Groundwater scientists and model developers from Utrecht University and Deltares have teamed up to make the first-ever, one-kilometre, groundwater model with global coverage. This is an important step on the road to establishing a better picture of groundwater in global water and climate models.

High water gripped the Netherlands during the 2023-2024 festive season. The Maeslant barrier closed for 24 hours because of the high sea levels due to storm Pia. For the second time in history, the five main Dutch flood barriers closed at the same time. Heavy rainfall, supplemented by meltwater, then caused discharge levels to peak in major rivers such as the Rhine. The Waal, Nederrijn-Lek and IJssel, and the Meuse were high, as were smaller rivers such as the Vecht, Regge and Dinkel. And water levels in the IJsselmeer and Markermeer lakes reached record highs. We look back and think about the future: what are the implications for future research?

Extreme water levels are increasingly common in our country. What are the effects of flood risks on the financial sector? Deltares investigated this together with De Nederlandse Bank (DNB).

Coastal areas are vital ecosystems that are home to 40 percent of the world's population and host biodiversity hotspots crucial for carbon sequestration. Despite their great importance, a comprehensive understanding of these areas was lacking until recently.

Where muddy beaches are located and how they change has been visualised for the first time worldwide using satellite imagery, machine learning and various coastal datasets. This shows that three quarters of the world's muddy coasts have changed significantly since 1988.

Deltares, Rijkswaterstaat and the KNMI have been working together for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to formulate the insights from the latest climate scenarios in terms of the implications for the discharge regime of the Rhine and Meuse rivers. The analysis shows that the mean winter and spring discharges will rise in both rivers.