Building for nature- biodiversity assessments on rich revetments
The Netherlands have been building dikes to protect their country from flooding events for a long time. Although the province of Zeeland is currently well protected with dikes along its estuaries, these regularly need to be replaced or reinforced. Currently, dikes and breakwaters are primarily designed from a civil engineering perspective. The main focus is on flood protection and water management. The Building for Nature approach aims at innovating the design of coastal protection structures in order to increase their nature values. Dikes with this type of design are called rich dikes, or rich revetments. These revetments can be of more interest to other users such as divers, fishermen or aquaculture.
In 2016 as part of the Buitendijks-project funded by the province of Zeeland several new breakwaters were placed in the Western Scheldt in order to protect the shore from erosion and increase the area of intertidal mudflats. At these breakwaters, the added value to nature of several innovative types of building materials will be tested at an experimental scale. In this project you will help in de development and placement of the experimental set-up and monitor the initial development of seaweeds and sessile invertebrates.
Research type: Field work and desk analysis
Research level: Minor or Internship
Prerequisite: Interest in aquatic ecology
Partners: NIOZ, Deltares
Client: Tim van Oijen