Abstract
In this paper we describe one aspect of nature-based flood protection by foreshores in hybrid flood defences and discuss how foreshore ecosystem restoration can contribute to flood protection. Flood protection consists of flood prevention, by grey, green or hybrid defences, and flood impact reduction, by spatial planning to limit damage and crisis management to limit exposure. Reduction of flood impact is increasingly important because no flood defence system can provide 100% safety, especially with climate change and sea level rise. In this study we aim to understand and visualize the effect of foreshore characteristics (i.e., width, elevation and erodibility) on flooding impact in the hinterland of hybrid flood defences. As it is difficult to research real dike breaches, we do an explorative flume study to analyse the impact of a mimicked dike breach in the hinterland. Our physical scale model showed the presence of a non-erodible foreshore reduces flood damage in the hinterland. With regards to foreshore characteristics, mainly foreshore elevation and erodibility are important, while differing foreshore width has little additional influence. Already a narrow foreshore reduced flood impact in the flume hinterland. Our findings strengthen the appeal to integrate Nature-based flood protection by foreshores in hybrid flood defences. Grey flood defences can be turned into hybrid flood defences even if there is limited space for foreshore ecosystem restoration, for instance by managed realignment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 108560 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science |
| Volume | 294 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Nov 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 The Authors
Funding
KH started on this work as part of an Utrecht University - NIOZ collaboration project. KH continued during her PhD at Wageningen University as part of the NWO project The Hedwige-Prosper Polder as a future-oriented experiment in managed realignment: integrating saltmarshes in water safety (with project number 17589) of the research programme 'Living Labs in the Dutch Delta' which is (partly) financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Work of JB and TB was supported by the Zeeland2121 project financed by WWF . DS and JM contributed during their Avans University of Applied Sciences graduation research at NIOZ. We thank Reineke Klein Entink and Jappe de Best from Avans for supervising DS and JM. We greatly acknowledge the technical support at NIOZ, Yerseke. KH started on this work as part of an Utrecht University - NIOZ collaboration project. KH continued during her PhD at Wageningen University as part of the NWO project The Hedwige-Prosper Polder as a future-oriented experiment in managed realignment: integrating saltmarshes in water safety (with project number 17589) of the research programme 'Living Labs in the Dutch Delta' which is (partly) financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). Work of JB and TB was supported by the Zeeland2121 project financed by WWF. DS and JM contributed during their Avans University of Applied Sciences graduation research at NIOZ. We thank Reineke Klein Entink and Jappe de Best from Avans for supervising DS and JM. We greatly acknowledge the technical support at NIOZ, Yerseke.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| World Wildlife Fund | |
| Universiteit Utrecht | |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 17589 |
| Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee | |
| Laurea University of Applied Sciences |
Keywords
- Ecosystem restoration
- Flood damage
- Flood impact reduction
- Hybrid flood defences
- Nature-based flood protection
- Non-erodible foreshores
