NWO grant for flood protection research

How do we use smart solutions to keep our feet dry? In the new NWO-funded program Future Flood Risk Management Technologies, program lead Bas Jonkman and his colleagues will create knowledge for flood protection of the river and coastal areas in the Netherlands and abroad.

Large areas of the Netherlands are at risk of being flooded. It was only last year, 2021, that rivers in the province of Limburg overflowed. A rise in sea levels and weather extremes caused by climate change calls for new technical and nature-based solutions for flood risk management and climate adaptation. The Future Flood Risk Management Technologies programme will receive an NWO Perspectief grant to work on flood-resilient and climate-adaptive coasts and rivers. Four Dutch universities and twenty-eight partners from companies, governments and abroad are participating in the program. They will research smart technical solutions, natural solutions and their implementation.

Want to know more? In the video on the right, professor of hydraulic engineering and one of the initiators of the PDPC, Bas Jonkman, provides a two-minute overview of the program.

Smart solutions

In the coming years, the consortium will research and develop smart solutions to make coastal areas, rivers and estuaries safer – now and in the future. How do we strengthen dikes without sacrificing too much space? Can we build with nature to protect us from floods? The researchers also explicitly address legal, economic and governance aspects to enhance the practical use of solutions.

In the consortium, researchers collaborate with institutions and users of the solutions, such as design agencies, municipalities and water authorities. The consortium focuses on real-life cases near the coastline in the province of Zeeland and the rivers Lek and Geul. This allows outcomes to be implemented quickly and efficiently. “Solutions to make the water system safer will not only come from new technological developments but also by building with nature”, says Jonkman.