Wind turbines on a flood defense: combining technical and governance aspects
Themes: Social impact, Water & Maritime
Early prototype
A TRL is a measure to indicate the matureness of a developing technology. When an innovative idea is discovered it is often not directly suitable for application. Usually such novel idea is subjected to further experimentation, testing and prototyping before it can be implemented. The image below shows how to read TRL’s to categorise the innovative ideas.
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Why?
Wind turbines on flood defenses are economically beneficial. Consequences of such large structures for safety are unknown. Complex multi-actor context creates governance and development problems for water boards and private parties.
How?
Technical aspect: Numerical and theoretical evaluation of consequences of wind turbines for the well-known failure mechanisms. Governance aspect: Evaluation of incentives, barriers and interactions in development processes by applying anthropological methodologies.
When?
The technical research should lead to the knowledge that is needed to introduce this aspect in existing regulations. The governance aspect should lead to improvement of development processes in similar oncoming projects.
Dr. Paul Holscher