Monitoring the Sand Engine along the Dutch coast

To preserve the Dutch coastline, beaches and coastal areas are fed with sand every five years. This form of maintenance is expensive and can damage the coastal ecosystems. The concept of the Sand Engine is an example of 'Building with Nature'. Maintenance is performed using natural processes in developing and maintaining the coastline.  

Building with nature

In a pilot project, a large quantity of sand was deposited off the coast of Zuid-Holland, creating a peninsula of 100 hectares. Due to currents from the sea and the wind, the sand will be redistributed over a coastline of 20 kilometres in the coming years. A consortium led by Witteveen+Bos is carrying out a monitoring programme of geomorphological and ecological processes aimed at the redistribution of sand. The data will provide large-scale insight into the ecological processes along the coastline.