Dealing with competing spatial claims in deltas | 1 januari 2018 | | With increasing world population and the global warming, the pressure on coastal areas increases. More and more space is needed to meet the demands for safety, food production, energy, recreation, housing, transport and nature. Seas and oceans are drivers for the economy and have great potential for innovation and growth.
Increasing production of seafood may sometimes conflict with other users of coastal areas. Especially in near shore areas this can be a major threshold for growth and innovation in the aquaculture sector. There is a need for new concepts in spatial planning how to combine functions in near shore areas. The Oosterschelde, located in the Southwestern Delta in the Netherlands, is an important shellfish production site. In this Living Lab new concepts of combining functions in technical, policy and administrative sense.
A group of four students with technical and administrative background will work on this assignment |
Robust Water Systems | 1 januari 2010 | 31 december 2025 | Fresh water availability, supply and buffering in a saline environment, with increasing fresh water stress.
Low coastal areas like the Netherlands and Belgium experience salt water intrusion and therefore limited sources of fresh water. In the south-western region of the Netherlands fresh water is obtained from the Biesbosch basins, which are located at least 100 km from the consumers. These consumers are industry, households and agriculture/livestock. With increasing fluctuations in precipitation and (likely) sea level rise, this fresh water stress is very likely to increase in the (near) future. In order to decrease the dependence on remote fresh water sources, and thus increase local resilience, precipitation should be better collected and preserved, instead of immediate discharge to the (saline) sea, which is currently done to prevent flooding. Integrating fresh water storage and supply with spatial planning, while maintaining or even upgrading the water quality, benefitting all stakeholders is the challenge for current and future delta developments.
Project Robust Water System aims to increase the resilience of the Zeeuws-Vlaanderen region by incorporating water multi-sourcing and ‘fit for use’ strategies. These strategies require close collaborations with stakeholders (end-users, government, research). Water sources are expanded towards Belgian polder run-off, municipal WWTP effluent, Dow WWTP effluent and rainwater. Agriculture is using polder run-off and potable water but do experience fresh water scarcity during periods of severe drought. Nature areas suffer from drought periods – overall there is a lack of salt nature. |