Flood defences

Increasingly important

Sea levels are rising and the weather increasingly proves to be more erratic and extreme, which sometimes forces rivers to discharge much more water in a short period of time. This has only increased the importance of flood defences and flood protection in many parts of the world.

In the field of flood defences, we are involved in safety assessment and design of flood defences, analysis of and policy-making for water safety, planning studies of dyke reinforcement, river widening and area planning.

We are also involved in research programmes on failure mechanisms of flood defences (POV, IJKDijk) and in the development of methodologies and tools for the WBI2017 statutory assessment toolbox.

Besides engineering, climate-proof solutions, life-cycle design, project environment and administrative decision-making are central to our approach. We perform our work based on expertise and experience, but we also like to consider innovative solutions. This may involve the innovative use of pre-existing solutions, for example by deploying them in a different context than usual. For instance, the semipermeable dams for mangrove accretion in Indonesia, or the idea for a tunnel for water drainage in Valkenburg.