News

Allisa Albrecht is a new staff member at the department of Hydraulic Engineering. In this article, She introduces herself shortly:

The Sand Motor, a large-scale peninsula comprising 21 million cubic metres of sand created on the coast at Kijkduin-Ter Heijde, has become a leading example worldwide of sustainable coastal protection. How is nature developing here, how are the dunes being replenished, and what is happening to the coastline? To answer these questions we need high-quality measuring equipment to continually monitor the coastline here. Thanks to financial support from Stichting Zabawas, the Sand Motor has now become a field laboratory for teaching and research in hydraulic engineering.

Water is a crucial element in climate and for society. Find out about the latest engineering interventions for water management in rivers, coasts and the urban environment.

PhD-student Anne Ton doet onderzoek op de afdeling waterbouwkunde naar de efficiëntie van de versterking van de Houtribdijk, de 25 km lange dijk tussen Lelystad en Enkhuizen die met zand en steen verstevigd wordt. ‘Het gebruik van zandige oevers op een plek als dit is wereldwijd uniek. Ik kan het dus nog helemaal zelf ontdekken.’ Zei ze in een interview met Rijkswaterstaat.

Future global warming will lead to an increase in ‘extreme sea levels’, with consequent flood risks to coastal infrastructure and human populations. An international research team from Italy, Greece, the Netherlands (TU Delft / Deltares) and the UK published this new research in Nature Communications.

A lot of claims are made worldwide about the role nature can play in combating floods, typhoons and tsunamis. However, no sound research has ever been conducted into the effect of nature on extreme conditions of this kind. How well do trees break the waves?

Pumping huge volumes of sand onto the coastline has effects on currents, waves and swim safety. Max Radermacher has compiled the first analysis of this problem to allow targeted measures (such as extra coastguards) to be taken where necessary. Radermacher will be awarded a PhD at TU Delft for his work on this subject on Friday 15 June.

A group of MIT professors and students visited The Netherlands last February, and were introduced to Dutch flood risk reduction structures and strategies by Tjerk Zitman and Baukje Kothuis during a week of field trips.

Large power failures or heavy storms demonstrate how vulnerable our infrastructure is. The four technical universities in the Netherlands (Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Twente, and Wageningen University and Research) are joining forces in the field of Resilience Engineering. On 7 June, the plans for the centre have been explained during an international launch event in Rotterdam.