An overview of 30 years of nature-basedcoastline management

Quirijn Lodder & Evelien Brand, Rijkswaterstaat

Coastal erosion threatens beaches and dunes globally. In the Netherlands, a coastline maintenance policy was implemented in the 1990’s to combat this erosion, with sand nourishments as the primary means. As a result, the Dutch coast is one of the most heavily nourished coasts globally with an average of 12 mln. m3 that is annually added to the coastline of only 432 km for dynamic coastline conservation. Our nourishment approach has evolved over the past 35 years and recently we reported on the lessons learned regarding the nourishment design. Furthermore, we evaluated the cumulative effects of these nourishments against the overarching goals of the coastal policy. Overall, the approach of coastline maintenance with regular proactive nourishments has proven to be successful.

The N-EWN Knowledge Series offers 1 Continuing Education Credit (CEC) per seminar. This Series is presented by N-EWN, Limnotech, the University of Georgia, and USACE ERDC.