Story overview

Does elephant grass like wet feet? Exactly how wet can they be? And does growing this crop help against peat degradation, land subsidence and thus greenhouse gas emissions? Deltares researchers Siem Jansen and Jesse Reusen hope to find answers to these questions in a meadow in Zegveld, Zuid-Holland.

As the sea level rises and water demands increases, will we still have enough drinking water for our growing coastal population in twenty years from now? With the University of Utrecht, Deltares is working on increasingly accurate models of fresh and saline groundwater distribution in coastal regions to map out current and future resources of drinking water. These models are helping drinking water company Dunea to explore new sources of drinking water and adapt its freshwater extraction strategies.

One of the challenges facing Zeeland is to combat the desiccation and salinisation of agricultural land. How Schouwen-Duiveland will also have sufficient freshwater in the future is being investigated in a Living Lab of which Deltares is part. Researchers from Deltares are working with farmers, governments and other knowledge institutions to test new, smart ways of drainage in the field.

The extreme rainfall this spring led to damage and disruption in many parts of the Netherlands. Floris Boogaard, an urban water management expert, is calling for a wadi in every street. “Our public spaces can cope with many consequences of climate change by collecting water." To build confidence in these climate-adaptive measures among concerned residents and to develop knowledge with civil servants, he is going to Groningen today.

To what extent do changes in the intertidal zone, places that run dry at low tide, affect waves and currents? And how does this affect the formation of channels and mudflats of an estuary as a whole? To better understand this and collect data with which to test numerical models, Reinier Schrijvershof regularly travels to the Eems estuary in eastern Groningen for his PhD research.

How can Deltares help to preserve and restore biodiversity? Sacha de Rijk and Antonios Emmanouil are working on combining knowledge and on establishing a sound dialogue between ecologists and engineers. Both disciplines are needed to combat biodiversity loss.

Barry Ros is a project manager for the Fryslân water authority, which wants to investigate how natural measures can help to make future-resilient dykes. Wetterskip Fryslân, together with Deltares, University of Twente and TU Delft, is studying the effect of salt marsh grass and foreland on the force of waves reaching the dyke. As a result, a dyke may need less space.

Each year, hundreds of international water managers, engineers and scientists visit Deltares. The visitors come to work with us on joint research projects, to attend events such as the Delft Software Days, and to consult us for strategic water issues. Many of our visitors stay in Delft for several days or weeks. By visiting these highlights, you will enjoy your visit to Deltares even more.

How can we achieve global coverage and locally relevant coastal wave estimates? Deltares experts Fedor Baart, Martin Verlaan, Guus van Hemert and former Deltares expert Anna van Gils utilised new technologies to develop a coastal wave emulator. In this blog Fedor Baart explains about the development of this simulator.

It is time for groundwater to become more visible. The invisible underground ‘water towers’ beneath our feet contain 100 times more freshwater than the volume of surface water on the continents. But this groundwater is under pressure due to unsustainable use, salinisation and pollution. We all depend on this fresh groundwater: for nature, for drinking and eating, and for our economy. The transitions required, such as the water, energy and agricultural transitions, mean we need to make responsible decisions about the use of water and space, and that includes the subsurface. In this groundwater year, we are eager to make the urgency of these issues, our intended social impact and groundwater expertise visible. Allow us to give three examples.

Droughts are among the most far-reaching and yet some of the most elusive natural hazards to nature as well as to mankind. In recent years, countries around the world have been severely impacted by droughts that affect food supply, agricultural income, employment opportunities, drinking water facilities and energy production.

Roshanka Ranasinghe, Senior Specialist Deltares and IHE Delft’s Professor of Climate Change Impacts & Coastal Risk, contributed to the latest assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was released earlier this month. He explains here why the world needs to act NOW to adapt and to avoid runaway climatic change.