Project Gets 16 Million To Keep The Dutch Delta Liveable
Deltas and coastal plains are attractive places to live: fertile, flat, open to the sea. These lowlands are, however, also vulnerable to climate-change and sea-level rise. To better predict how deltas develop in the future we need a thorough understanding of their biogeomorphology – how organisms, currents, waves, water and sand discharge all shape the delta-landscape. Today it was announced that Δ-ENIGMA, a project that focuses on the development of the delta-landscape, is one of the projects to be awarded through the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Large-scale Research Infrastructure call (LSRI). The 10-year project will receive 16 million euros.
∆-ENIGMA will strengthen national and international collaboration
The project is a collaboration between Utrecht University, TU Delft, University of Twente, Wageningen University&Research, NIOZ, Deltares and TNO. Biogeomorphology lies at the heart of Δ-ENIGMA. The programme provides infrastructure for intensive observational and experimental research of the Dutch delta. This will improve our ability to predict future development, and help us live on happily in a changing delta.
“We do not yet have the models to accurately predict changes in deltas in the coming years to decades, mainly because our knowledge of the interaction between physical and ecological processes in the formation of deltas is insufficient,” says Gerben Ruessink, Δ-ENIGMA project leader and professor at Utrecht University.
Open data and labs
A coherent open database of the measurement results will be accumulating over the project’s 10-year period and will be freely available to researchers, policymakers and delta managers. “∆-ENIGMA will strengthen national and international collaboration, as the collected data will be open and FAIR and the laboratory facilities will be accessible to others,” Ruessink says.
Dutch contribution to European research infrastructure
“With this grant, we can acquire specialised equipment that will allow us, for example, to better assess the effects of various interventions on the Dutch delta.” This is equipment such as drones and 3D laser scanners, but also the construction and use of labs and lab facilities. “In doing so, we are making a Dutch contribution to the European research infrastructure for river-sea systems, DANUBIUS-RI.”