An integral approach to design the Roggenplaat intertidal shoal nourishment

Abstract

The Eastern Scheldt, a tidal basin in the southwest of The Netherlands, underwent large physical and ecological changes due to a system-wide human interference. The construction of a storm surge barrier at the seaward side and closure of the upstream branches in the 1980s resulted in intertidal flat erosion. This has far reaching consequences for the ecological functioning of these habitats, especially as foraging ground for many wader species. Therefore, a 1.3 million m 3 sand nourishment is foreseen on the Roggenplaat intertidal shoal to mitigate the erosion and preserve suitable foraging habitat for waders for the coming 25 years. This paper presents an integral nourishment design approach. It consists of the following steps: (i) understanding the morphology and ecology, (ii) translation of the nourishment objective into an evaluation framework, (iii) construction of a suitability map indicating potential nourishment locations, (iv) generation of nourishment designs, (v)

Increased Utilization of Storm Surge Barriers: A Research Agenda on Estuary Impacts

“…In urban estuary systems, the monetary benefits of surge barrier construction may greatly exceed the costs, and so an important research question is whether sedimentary mitigation can be effective and its costs manageable. For example, with the Eastern Scheldt, tidal flats are now nourished to mitigate the tidal flat erosion (Van der Werf et al., 2019). In cases where riverine sediment sources have been interrupted, they could be restored to mitigate loss of storm‐driven sediment supply to marshes (Tognin et al., 2021).…”