Floods are consistently ranked as the most financially devastating natural disasters worldwide. Recent flood events in the Netherlands, Caribbean, and US have drawn attention to flood risks resulting from pluvial and fluvial sources. Despite shared experiences with flooding, these regions employ distinct approaches and flood management strategies due to differences in governance and scale—offering a three-site case study comparison. A key, yet often lacking, factor for flood risk and damage assessments at the parcel level is building elevation compared to flood elevation. First-floor elevations (FFEs) are a critical element in the vulnerability of a building flooding. US-based flood insurance policies require FFEs; however, data availability limitations exist. Drone-based FFEs were measured in all locations to assess the flood vulnerabilities of structures. Flood vulnerability profiles revealed 64% of buildings were vulnerable to a form of inundation, with 40% belonging to “moderate” or “major” inundation, and inundation elevation means (IEMs) of −0.55 m, 0.19 m, and 0.71 m within the US, Netherlands, and Puerto Rico sites, respectively. Spatial statistics revealed FFEs were more responsible for flood vulnerabilities in the US site while topography was more responsible in the Netherlands and Puerto Rico sites. Additional findings in the Puerto Rico site reveal FFEs and next highest floor elevations (NHFEs) vulnerable to future sea level rise (SLR) flood elevations. The findings within the Netherlands provide support for developing novel multi-layered flood risk reduction strategies that include building elevation. We discuss future work recommendations and how the different sites could benefit significantly from strengthening FFE requirements.

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The latest IPCC report which is named ‘The Synthesis Report , Climate Change 2023’ was released on 20 March 2023 to inform the 2023 Global Stocktake under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The report finds that ‘there is more than 50% chance that global temperature rise will reach or surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius between 2021 and 2040 across studied scenarios, and under a high-emissions pathway, specifically, the world may hit this threshold even sooner, between 2018 and 2037.’ These findings again emphasise the growing pressures and challenges that deltas are confronting in their path towards future development. It is evident that the global imperative for deltas to adapt has reached an unprecedented level, but at the same time the question arises if adaptation is enough. Especially considering the scope of societal challenges that need to be the point of departure for sustainable spatial transformation in general. Aren't they of such a fundamental nature that we need to reconsider our urban system as a whole and aim for transformation instead of adaptation?

Looking more closely to the societal challenges we can organise them according to their environmental and socio-economic drivers. The environmental drivers are the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis. The socio-economic drivers are ongoing urbanisation, the energy transition, and the new economy.@en

Intervention methods to establish commitment to (collaborative) action are of potential interest to researchers and policymakers intent upon including stakeholder perspectives in natural risk governance (Scolobig, Nat Hazards 81:27–43, 2016). In this paper, a 6-step co-design method for engaging with local people in collaboratively envisioning nature-based solutions for flood defence is described. The problem structuring base of the participatory method is extended to accommodate the multi-actor situation and the local context of flood risk management. The intervention method is applied in a workshop in the Houston–Galveston Bay area in October 2014. At that time there was strong contestation surrounding the proposed Ike Dike with alternative combinations of nature-based and smaller conventional engineering solutions being proposed. The results indicate that the local participants were able to envision a wide range of future outcomes for the bay and were able to use the insights on nature-based solutions and the social contacts that they acquired at the transdisciplinary workshop to mobilize commitment to joint action. This action focused on collaboration rather than specifying ecological or technical infrastructural requirements and was instrumental in initiating more open discourse on flood defence options for the Houston–Galveston Bay area. The paper concludes that the generic applicability of the co-design method is limited by the requirement to understand and accommodate local circumstances and participants’ insights within the workshop.

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Inter- and transdisciplinary place-based learning by international groups of students formed an integral component of the Partnerships for International Research and Education Coastal Flood Risk Reduction (PIRE-CFRR) program “Integrated, multiscale approaches for understanding how to reduce vulnerability to damaging events.” The program aimed to create “authentic learning environments” that supported and benefitted from ongoing research on flood risk management. Accordingly, an eight-step transdisciplinary, collaborative design workshop method was developed and applied to two problem situations: (i) the erosion hotspot of the southwest coast of Texel island and (ii) the future noncompliance of the old Hondsbossche Pettermer Sea Dike with Dutch flood defense standards. The effects of the workshop method were evaluated in terms of the process of co-design, the substantive outcomes, and the learning outcomes of individual students. Findings indicate that the co-design process created an open and authentic environment in which students from different disciplinary backgrounds could experience undertaking integrated, nature-based design. Wide-ranging nature-based solutions were produced with diverse biogeophysical and social features in all designs. This indicated that the students were equipped to work collaboratively to produce novel designs that incorporated multiple perspectives. Survey results affirmed the success of the transdisciplinary co-design workshop method as a means of teaching integrated, nature-based infrastructure design.@en

In several coastal regions around the world, movable storm surge barriers have been implemented to protect against flooding induced by storm surges and waves. These barriers often form an integral part of the coastal defense system. In urban deltas, they are mostly intended to protect urban and industrial interests, while providing access for shipping. The movable structure also offers other advantages, for example, the preservation of natural ecosystems. Where dams and dikes completely close off an area from the ocean, movable storm surge barriers ensure that a gradual freshwater-saltwater transition and tidal effects are maintained, while still providing the necessary flood protection. This multifunctionality makes these types of barriers sought-after for new flood protection schemes, as in the Houston-Galveston Bay area. In this respect, it is important to realize that movable storm surge barriers are assets with very specific characteristics. These characteristics have a major impact on the management, maintenance, and operations (MMO) of the barrier and can cause multiple challenges during its lifespan. However, by taking these specific characteristics into account in the design phase of the barrier, several of these challenges could largely be addressed. In the different contexts of coastal physics, climate, and flood risk approaches along the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, the challenges and their consequences might differ. This chapter examines a number of specific characteristics of movable storm surge barriers and their implications for MMO. The aim of this chapter is to create awareness for these specific characteristics and to offer direction on how to deal with their impacts on MMO by means of a reasoned design.

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This chapter evaluated the educational effects of an international integrative research education program by analyzing the survey of participating students of the NSF PIRE CFRR Program. The survey was conducted from 2016 to 2019, before and after the 2-week research field trip in the Netherlands. The results show that a problem- and place-based research education program offering immersive and transformative training could significantly improve students’ knowledge and help students to approach a problem with a more integrative and holistic perspective in only two weeks if the program is properly designed.

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Coastal Flood Risk Reduction: The Netherlands and the U.S. Upper Texas Coast represents the culmination of a 5-year international research and education partnership funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and more than 10 years of collaboration between Dutch and U.S. flood experts on the basic issue of how to protect society from growing flood risks. Multiple case studies integrating the fields of engineering, hydrology, landscape architecture, economics, and planning address the underlying characteristics of physical flood risks and their prediction; human communities and the associated built environment; physical, social, and built-environment variables; and mitigation techniques. In recognition of the lack of systematic research and the growing societal need to better understand flood impacts, this edited book provides an in-depth, comparative evaluation of flood problems and solutions in two key places: the Netherlands and the U.S. Upper Texas Coast. Both regions are extremely flood-prone and have experienced continual adverse impacts throughout their histories. For researchers in flood management, geographers, hydrologists, environmental studies, and social science as well as policymakers and decision-makers in flood management authorities and related industries, this book provides an essential resource.

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International integrative research and education programs that address societal challenges such as flood risk can provide excellent out-of-class learning experiences for students by encouraging them to go beyond their own disciplines and tackle problems collaboratively with other students from various backgrounds. In recognition of the increasing importance of multidisciplinary approaches in research projects, it is worthwhile to discuss how to effectively design such integrative research and education programs to ensure successful learning outcomes for participating students. The NSF PIRE Coastal Flood Risk Reduction Program is an international place- and problem-based research education program in which students conduct case study research across the upper Texas coast in the United States and the North Sea coast in the Netherlands. Four yearly student research trips to the Netherlands were conducted from 2016 to 2019. Each year, multiple case studies (place-based) are designed for each country, covering both surge-based and precipitation-driven flood problems (problem-based). A total of 58 graduate and undergraduate students from various disciplines, including engineering, planning, economics, hydrology, biology, architecture, geography, communications, and computational hydraulics, participated. A 2-week long research trip in the Netherlands is designed to embrace the concepts of “convergence” to effectively provide students with transformative and authentic-learning experiences. This chapter describes how to design an international integrative research and education program by integrating and converging knowledge, data, and experiences across disciplines—from development to implementation. Then, it discusses reflections and lessons learned from the first 4 years (out of 7) of the program. This chapter will offer guidance to faculty, researchers, and program coordinators in higher education who desire to create a similar program.

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In the field of flood risk reduction, comparative international work is rare. Even more so are book-length treatments that look not only across international boundaries, but disciplines as well. Coastal Flood Risk Reduction does just that and more. This book is the most systematic, integrated, and detailed study of flooding ever produced between the Netherlands and the Upper Texas Coast in the United States. Based on an ongoing 6-year collaborative investigation, 43 authors representing numerous academic entities in both countries contributed 35 chapters addressing seemingly every angle of the problem and their potential solutions. Even more unique, this body of work is driven by a place-based research and learning approach to address floods, where students provide the inspiration for inquiry and innovation.

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Building with Nature (BwN) infrastructure designs are characterised by disciplinary integration, non-linearity, diverse and fluid design requirements, and long-term time frames that balance the limitations of earth’s natural systems and the socio-technical systems created by humans. Differentiating roles in the engineering design process may offer strategies for better solutions. Four complementary engineering design roles were distinguished, namely: Specialists, System Integrators, Front-end Innovators, and Contextual Engineers. The key research question addressed in this paper asks, how can the introduction of engineering roles enhance interdisciplinary processes for BwN design? Three Building with Nature design workshops with international groups of students from multiple disciplines and various education levels provided the ideal context for investigating whether engineering roles enhance such interdisciplinary ways of working. Results indicate that the application of engineering roles in each of the three workshops indeed supported interdisciplinary design. A number of conditions for successful implementation within an authentic learning environment could be identified. The engineering roles sustain an early, divergent way of looking at the design problem and support the search for common ground across the diverse perspectives of the team members, each bringing different disciplinary backgrounds to the design table. The chapter closes with a discussion on the value of engineering design roles and their significance for the Building with Nature approach.

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New approaches to combine flood protection, soil regeneration and water management strategies with urban design, landscape architecture and spatial planning in delta regions cannot do without knowledge and understanding of history. To find a new balance between urbanization, climate change, geopolitical shifts, the energy transition in deltas it is crucial to understand the evaluation of the system from the past to what it is today and can be in the future. The logic of the relationship between design, engineering, science and governance on the one hand, and the logic with the natural system on the other, determined the current conditions and its performance. In the development of cities, at any time, there is the concept of Longue Durée recognizing the formative forces of nature and the relevance of historic concepts to take into account (Braudel, 1949). The main question of this issue is: How can interdisciplinary approaches of design, engineering, science and governance respond to the environmental crisis and steer upon the Longue Durée of the delta?
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The development of knowledge about the mechanism in the delta has had a high dependency on projects and techniques available. During the period from 1930 to 1939, there is a consolidation of the achievements and further development of hydraulic engineering techniques, based on model-based and mathematical analyses and prognoses (Schot et al., 1998). In this time two of the physical models were built, the Waterloopbos in the Netherlands and the Mississippi River basin in the USA. Both models have been used extensively to expand knowledge and build projects, but both became out of use when computers appeared in the 1980s. Then the calculation models were favoured, as they can be done faster, and are also capable of handling complex problems. Computer technology became increasingly dominated by measurement, prognosis, calibration, verification and validation. For this project section, the current state of the two models is brought forth as a new technique in which maybe the Longue Duree of the relation between humans and nature can become evident. @en

The title of this journal is the offspring of Han Meyer who started the interdisciplinary research movement Delta Urbanism about 25 years ago. The two words describe the concept that brings focus on an integrative and interdisciplinary approach in the planning, designing and engineering of urbanised deltas –fragile and highly dynamic landscapes at sea, in deltas, and in estuaries– facing extreme challenges from competing claims and interests. As discourse, it investigates the possibilities to combine flood resilience, soil regeneration and water management strategies with urban design, landscape architecture and spatial planning. Finally, as practice, it has the objective to improve spatial form, function, and performance and innovate urban systems in urban and metropolitan delta and coastal regions.

The urgency for this novel approach is seen in the quest for a new dynamic equilibrium between urban growth, port- development, agriculture, environmental and ecological qualities, flood-defence systems and fresh-water supply. Delta Urbanism, as a field of interest and action, positions itself in this search of a new modernity: planning, designing and engineering the co-existence and equity between different forms of life and inhabitation and their reciprocity within the natural environment as a whole.
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As there is increasing emphasis on transformative education and authentic learning in interdisciplinary research projects, it is meaningful to investigate how to effectively design a multidisciplinary research and education program to ensure beneficial outcomes for participating students. This is especially important for ocean and coastal engineering programs that are likely the most multidisciplinary engineering programs. The NSF PIRE Coastal Flood Risk Reduction Program is an international place and problem-based research education program in which students conduct case studies across the Houston-Galveston metropolitan area in the U.S. and in the Netherlands. There are three to four designated case studies (place-based) annually in each country, covering both surge-based and precipitation-driven flood problems (problem-based). From 2016 to 2018, there were three student research trips to the Netherlands (one each year, after the spring semesters). A total of 42 U.S. students, graduate and undergraduate were selected from four participating U.S. campuses apply for a designated Dutch case study. The three to four case studies change every year. Students from diverse disciplines, including engineering, planning, economics, hydrology, biology, architecture, geography, communications, and computational hydraulics, interested in flood risk reduction can apply. Those accepted into the Program are placed in interdisciplinary research teams composed of 5-6 students: 1-2 PhD, 2-3 Masters, and 2-3 undergraduate students. The teams are guided by project faculty mentors from both U.S. and Dutch partner institutions. A two-week long research trip to the Netherlands provides transformative education and an authentic learning environment through field trips, meetings with Dutch flood experts, lectures, and participation in design workshops. Students are required to present their research work three times while they are in the Netherlands: 5-minute research plan; 10-minute research progress; and 15-minute final presentation. By preparing these presentations, students learn how to collect data, interview stakeholders, lead/participate in brain-storming discussions, and adjust/improve their research products. Students also learn how to interact with people from different disciplines and look at the issues from diverse perspectives. This article describes the design process of the Program, from initial development through implementation. Reflections and lessons learned from the first three years of the Program are shared.

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Pressure on land use in port an delta cities worldwide is increasing, and designing structures and strategies for protection seems possible only when considering multifunctional use. In the meantime, uncertainties about climate change and economic developments present problems in determining a flood protection level. This combined complexity requires technological and institutional innovations. One of these innovations is the concept of 'multifunctional flood defences'. Such defences can become relevant when necessary improvements in flood defence systems conflict with urban functions, when on-going urbanization requires more space, when public funds are under pressure, or when stakeholders pursue previously unthinkable combinations of functions such as a crematorium or parking garage in a dike. This article focuses on flood protection combined with buildings and objects, with a high degree of constructive integration. It explains how the approaches of engineering and spatial design can be integrated. In addition, it describes the involvement of stakeholders in these design projects.@en

After five years of exchange programmes across the Atlantic, Texas research veterans Nikki Brand (spatial planning), Antonia Sebastian (urban hydrology) and Baukje Kothuis (anthropology) assess the accomplishments of the Dutch Delta Approach in the Houston-Galveston Bay region. Looking at the academic discourse, the public debate and the design of a flood defense along Galveston island, they conclude that the approach has worked.@en

Various interesting tools were used and/or developed to stimulate knowledge integration in the Multifunctional Flood Defenses program. This chapter will present a diverse collection of these tools, hopefully stimulating others to consider using some of them in future.@en

The MFFD research program aims for integral design of multifunctional flood defenses. A team of academic researchers from multiple disciplinary backgrounds would integrate their knowledge to reach this goal. The aim of the current research project was to design and organize an interactive trajectory by means of Action Research to facilitate the collaboration process within the research program. This was easier said than done. In the very first team meeting, the researchers discussed ‘the definition of a MFFD’, and it became clear that many concepts featuring in the design of a MFFD meant different things to different participants. The challenge became clear: how could we integrate these different perspectives towards an integral design? @en

Designing multifunctional flood defenses requires the input of knowledge from multiple disciplines, as has been frequently mentioned in this book. Researchers from multiple disciplines were employed in the MFFD-program, and they almost universally expressed a keen desire to collaborate. Different ways of collaboration were tried, explored, worked out; some were discarded as less useful, while others developed into useful products (see for example the 'MFFD-decisions' LEGO©-game and the 'Wind-turbines-on-dike' Electro©-game; p. 133). @en