Title of the project
Wave damping, sediment trapping and salt-intrusion mitigation by estuarine ecosystem engineering species
Type
PhD Research
Duration
May 2022 – May 2026
Persons involved
Ir. Jesse Bootsma (PhD Candidate)
Dr.ir. B.W. Borsje (Daily Supervisor and Co-Promotor)
Prof.dr. S.J.M.H. Hulscher (Promotor)
Prof.dr. D. Van der Wal (Promotor)
Funding of the project
NWO Perspectief-programma: SALTISolutions
Summary of the research
Sea level rise, drought, subsidence, and dredging of waterways can exacerbate the intrusion of seawater in deltas and estuaries, affecting fresh water availability and nature. Within the SALTISolutions programme, one of the aims is to investigate potential measures to mitigate the effects of salinity intrusion, including nature-based solutions. In this PhD project, the potential effects of these nature-based solutions on estuarine services, such as wave damping and sediment trapping will be studied, on top of the ability of these measures to mitigate saltwater intrusion.
This study will focus on solutions involving ecosystem engineers, i.e. organisms that have the ability to modify their physical environment. More specifically, three types of vegetation (Common cordgrass, glasswort and reed) and two types of bivalves (mussels and oysters) are considered. Their effects on an estuarine scale are investigated, via the interplay between salinity, hydrodynamics, sediment transport, morphodynamics and ecosystem engineering activity. An integrated approach of numerical biogeomorphological modelling, remote sensing and statistical modelling will be applied, combined with available data from past field and flume studies.
Four phases are defined where (1) the wave damping capacity and (2) the sediment trapping is studied for vegetation (1a; 2a) and bivalves (1b; 2b). The combined effects of the ecosystem engineers on their physical environment, therefore affecting saltwater intrusion, will ultimately integrate the four phases. The study area includes the south-western delta of the Netherlands, together with the Wadden Sea area. The PhD-project is a collaboration between the Marine and Fluvial Systems (MFS) group at the Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering Technology, and the Department of Water Resources (WRS) of the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente.
Keywords
Nature-based solutions, estuaries, Rhine-Meuse Delta, Scheldt, Wadden Sea, ecosystem engineers, saltmarshes, shellfish reefs, biogeomorphological modelling, remote sensing, statistical modelling, salt-intrusion, wave damping, sediment trapping
More information
Jesse Bootsma
Room: Horst-Ring W203
Tel.: +31534896375
E-mail: jesse.bootsma@utwente.nl