Title of the project
Living dikes for nature-based flood risk mitigation: the development, protective function, and resilience of tidal marshes
Type
Postdoc research
Duration
2025-2027
Persons involved
Marte M. Stoorvogel, MSc. (postdoc)
Dr. Ir. Bas W. Borsje (daily supervisor)
Prof. Dr. Ir. Suzanne J.M.H. Hulscher (supervisor)
Dr. Ir. Erik M. Horstman (supervisor)
Funding of the project
This research is part of three projects:
- ‘LIVING DIKES – Realising Resilient and Climate-Proof Coastal Protection’, which is funded by NWO.
- The VIDI project ‘LIVING ON THE EDGE: Using soft solutions to buffer coasts against extreme hydro-meteorological events’, which is funded by NWO.
- ‘SALTGARDEN. Sustainable Adaptive Landscapes through Transdisciplinary Gardening to Advance the Resilience and Dynamics of our Ecological Natural-heritage’, which is funded by NWO, BMUV, and BMBF.
Summary of the research
Delta regions are globally threatened by climate change effects, such as sea-level rise and locally increasing storm intensity and frequency. At locations where dikes or seawalls are used for flood protection, such hard, ‘grey’ flood defence structures will need to be heightened and strengthened. This will require regular maintenance and may hence become expensive and unsustainable. A rising interest therefore exists in the use of ‘green’, nature-based flood risk mitigation, where wetlands (e.g. mangroves, tidal marshes, and coral, oyster, or mussel reefs) are incorporated in flood risk mitigation strategies. This often leads to hybrid, ‘green-grey’ flood risk mitigation, where a combination of hard defence structures and wetlands are used for flood risk mitigation. In this study we focus on tidal marshes, which can contribute to flood risk mitigation by attenuating waves and storm surges, reducing breach depth in case of a dike failure, and reducing shoreline erosion. Additionally, marshes can grow vertically to keep up with sea-level rise, which makes them adaptive and climate-change resilient.
For the incorporation of tidal marshes in flood risk mitigation strategies it is crucial to understand how strong the contribution of tidal marshes to flood risk mitigation is and how resilient the tidal marsh will be under future climate change (i.e. how well it can resist disturbances and recover afterwards). Additionally, it requires insight in the best ways to restore or create tidal marshes and how marsh vegetation and stability will develop over time in restored or created tidal marshes. In this research we aim to gain insight into the contribution of natural, restored, and created tidal marshes to flood risk mitigation, how these marshes develop, and how climate-change resilient they are.
Keywords
Nature-based flood protection, tidal marshes, sediment stability, erosion, ecosystem resilience
More information
Marte Stoorvogel
Room: Horst-Ring W216
E-mail: marte.stoorvogel@utwente.nl