The Dutch coastal zone is prone to flooding. The Netherlands has chosen to protect the coast by means of soft adaptive solutions such as (mega-)nourishments with the aim of maintaining the coastline. At present the sediment volume in the Wadden Sea coastal zone is insufficient due to the export towards the tidal basins. This is exacerbated by the accelerated sea-level rise and subsidence and subsequently larger nourishment volumes are required in the near future. Mega-nourishments like the Sand Motor turned out to be efficient. However, the morphological and ecological impacts of such a large-scale intervention in a complex system as the ebb-tidal delta of the Wadden Sea are insufficiently known. This is all the more critical, as the anticipated mega-nourishments will be in the vicinity of the protected World Heritage area. Within SEAWAD, we develop the system knowledge and tools to predict the effects of mega-nourishments on morphology and ecology (benthos distribution).
This project is linked to the program Kustgenese 2.0. More information about that program can be found here, or see the video below.
Team and Partners
- TU Delft: Zheng Bing Wang, Bram van Prooijen, Stuart Pearson, Floris de Wit, Marion Tissier, Peter Herman
- Utrecht University: Maarten van der Vegt, Laura Brakenhoff
- Twente University: Harriette Holzhauer, Bas Borsje
- Rijkswaterstaat: Harry de Looff, Quirijn Lodder
- Deltares: Dirk Jan Walstra
Bram van Prooijen 