Discover how dunes, salt marshes and mangroves contribute to flood protection, and learn to design, implement and evaluate Building with Nature strategies.
Building with Nature provides a comprehensive introduction to solutions for flood risk management, with a specific focus on coastal and delta areas. Instead of relying on traditional hard engineering structures only, this course explores how natural systems such as dunes, salt marshes and mangroves can be used as part of adaptive flood protection strategies. You will learn how these systems function, how they evolve over time, how they can contribute to safety and resilience and how governance structures can be designed to support their implementation.
This course is highly relevant for professionals who want to design, implement or evaluate Building with Nature strategies in real-world coastal and flood management contexts.
Building with Nature is becoming increasingly important as policy makers, area managers and local stakeholders are searching for sustainable and resilient alternatives to conventional flood risk management strategies. Solutions based on natural ecosystems offer strong potential, in terms of flood risk reduction as well as many ecological and societal co-benefits. However, natural ecosystems are intrinsically dynamic and Building with Nature solutions therefore introduce new uncertainties related to their performance, their long-term survival, required maintenance and appropriate governance structures.
Professionals therefore need a solid understanding of how natural systems behave to develop and implement effective policy and management strategies that enable the effective integration of Building with Nature solutions in flood risk management.
This is a regular masters course in which both students and professionals can participate. The course combines lectures, tutorials, practical exercises, an excursion, and a group project. During the first part of the course, participants build a theoretical foundation in the key principles of Building with Nature, including the dynamics of dunes, salt marshes and mangroves, monitoring and modelling approaches, and the governance challenges related to implementation. This part of the course contains a practical exercise and is concluded with an exam.
The second part of the course focuses on a project in which participants apply their obtained theoretical knowledge to a real-life case study. This case can be based on a course-provided example or, where suitable, on a case brought in by participants or their organisation. The project is carried out in groups and addresses not only technical aspects, but also uncertainty, governance and societal implications. The project concludes with a final report and presentation.
Assessment and other details:
This course is intended for professionals who want to strengthen their knowledge of nature-based solutions in flood risk management. Typical profiles include, but are not limited to, coastal engineers, hydraulic engineers, water managers, climate adaptation specialists, environmental consultants, policy advisors, and project managers working in water, infrastructure or delta management.
Professionals are expected to have a basic understanding of Matlab or Python, coastal dynamics and basic modelling skills. A bachelor-level background in Civil Engineering is recommended; HBO-level participants with relevant experience may also apply, depending on experience.
Start date: April (Q4)
Total duration: April until June (excluding resits) (140 uur study load)
Number of teaching days / sessions: Lectures + tutorials + practical exercise + excursion + group project + presentation (exact schedule to be confirmed).
Total programme fee: €2067,15 (5 ECTS × €413,43 per ECTS)
Programme type: mastercourse
Location: University of Twente, Enschede, NL
Language of instruction: English
Admission requirements: A basic understanding of Matlab/Python is essential for this course. Participants are expected to have prior knowledge of coastal dynamics and basic modelling skills. A background in Civil Engineering is recommended.
Teachers: