Life on the rocks- biodiversity assessments on breakwaters
Currently, dikes and foreshores 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 Spring and Autumn 2014 concrete blocks with different sizes of pits (holes) on the surface were designed and placed at two field locations in the intertidal in the Eastern Scheldt. In Spring 2015 a dike section of 100m was built at Sint-Annaland where these blocks are compared with other revetment types. In this research you will monitor the changes in biodiversity and you will assess which block type performs better and why. Based on your analysis you provide advice on the design of new revetments.
Research type: Field work and desk analysis
Research level: Minor or Internship
Prerequisite: Interest in aquatic ecology
Partners: NIOZ, Deltares
Client: Tim van Oijen