Nature Based Solutions for flash flood mitigation in Limburg (NL)
Suggested elective course:
- Modelling and climate related courses
Additional remarks:
- The context is a potential project the Wageningen University and ITC do for the Province of Limburg and the Waterboard Limburg.
South-Limburg suffers from plvial floods ad flash floods occasionally. The last floods in 2021 caused immense damage in the river Geul. The river has very little room to use protection measures gainast flooding, such as dikes or basins. The Waterboard Limburg has installed more than 400 runoff buffers in the area, but still flooding occasionally happens. Currently there is a lot of interest in Nature Based Solutuons. The general idea is to restore nature in some way which will then mitigate floods, because might buffer water flows better than agriculture. However, the effectiveness of the measures depends on all kinds of factors: intensity and depth of rainfall, strategic locations of NBS measures, which combinations of NBS are chosen. There is a strong political and polivy context with many opposing ideas and interests. This topic can have multiple directions: more stakeholder based or more technical.
- How to parameterize NBS measures in the openLISEM model
- Which NBS measure are feasible
- Which NBS measures are effective
- What about the future, effects of climate change
- To which degree (frequency magnitude of rainfall) are they effective
The methodology id the openLISEM model, a full database for Limburg is available, but NBS measures need probably field investigation.
There are strong multidisciplinary components with conflicting interests of stakeholder groups.