Abstract:
Flood risks in the Dutch river system are relatively high. Due to climate change, it is expected that Dutch river systems have to deal more often with highly fluctuating water discharges. In this thesis, it is hypothesized that by applying flood-resilient strategies, a solution is offered to deal with these developments. Such resilient strategies address the ability of the river system to recover from floods. Though, a translation of the concept of flood-resilience towards practical principles remains largely excluded. Hence, this thesis focusses on assembling flood-resilient design principles that can be applied in Dutch river landscapes. This thesis contributes to the acquisition of knowledge concerning flood-resilient measures using two phases: an explorative phase and an experimental phase. In the explorative phase, an inventory is made of flood-resilient design principles that are applied successfully in Dutch river landscapes. In the successive experimental phase, the design principles and knowledge that have been acquired before, are tested at one specific site: the Rijnstrangen area. After completing multiple design iterations within this experimental phase, optimal integration of flood-resilient design principles eventually led to the final design of the ‘Living Rhine’. This final design is evaluated after which new flood resilient design principles are proposed. The established design principles ensure that complex flood-resilient strategies can be translated into coherent design understanding. This simplifies the transfer of flood-resilient knowledge between different fields of expertise, including the ones of hydrologists, designers and decision-makers.
