The Netherlands is a country with a history of human activity along the coast to ensure water safety. In the 1990's a new approach to coastal management was adopted that allowed for more experimentation in the Dutch dunes. Since then a slew of different types of projects have been undertaken, one of which is the construction of foredune blowouts. Foredune blowouts are gaps or indentations in the dunes from which bare sand can erode due to the wind. The motivation for the creation of constructed foredune blowouts can range from wanting to reintroduce gradients back into the landscape to ecological restoration, or water safety.
Over the years different construction methods and designs have been created, however the evaluation of these projects has been difficult in the past due to broadly defined goals and limited monitoring data. The aim of this research is to investigate the potential of constructed foredune blowouts have in achieving water safety and preserving natural values in the Netherlands by modeling constructed foredune blowouts and evaluating the effect of various design aspects.

Insight into the effects of different designs of foredune blowouts is gained through the use of a modeling study that is set up in AeoLiS, a supply-limited aeolian sediment transport model. Different combinations of width, orientation and number of foredune blowouts are simulated in a stretched profile of a section of the Dutch Coast, leading to thirty two simulations. Additionally three alternate methods of implementing foredune blowouts as well as a scenario without a foredune blowout are simulated.

Model results show a pattern of erosion in the intertidal range and deposition along the dunefoot with limited sediment traveling from the beach through the foredune blowout. There is a clear pattern of erosion and deposition along the erosional walls of the foredune blowout and a limited development of a depositional lobe behind the blowout. Simulation of a foredune blowout induced through the removal of top soil and vegetation exhibits similarities with observations in the field.

Constructed foredune blowouts offer a method of creating areas of bare sand which can create space for ecological succession in the vicinity of the blowout. The sand that is removed may also be used to reinforce weaker areas of the dune row. They can offer a diverse looking landscape if that is desirable. However model results do not indicate that constructed foredune blowouts facilitate additional growth of the dunes. The changes in bed level in the model are primarily a redistribution of sediment already situated within the primary dune row.

The Wadden Sea is a unique and ecologically important coastal region
in the southeastern North Sea, stretching along the coasts of Denmark,
Germany, and the Netherlands. It is known for its vast tidal flats, salt
marshes, and barrier islands, forming a dynamic and constantly changing
landscape, creating rich biodiversity.

The Wadden Sea in the Netherlands is composed of the mainland
coastal areas and the Wadden Islands (such as Texel, Vlieland,
Terschelling, Ameland, and Schiermonnikoog). This area plays a crucial
role in protecting the land and supporting the people who live there. It
serves as a natural defense against storm surges and flooding, supports
local businesses through fishing and tourism, and provides a vital
ecosystem for numerous plant and animal species.

However, infrastructure development in the Wadden Sea area, including
offshore wind farms, shipping routes, and coastal engineering, has
impacted some ecosystems. The development is necessary for economic
growth, such as shipping infrastructure for tourism on the Wadden
Islands and offshore wind energy due to the energy crisis. These
developments will definitely shape the landscape in the coming years.
In the thesis, data on infrastructure and ecology was collected and
analyzed to find conflicts between them and how they affect the
landscape. This research formed the basis for the design phase. Then,
for the territorial scale, three strategies were put forward. Moreover, two
sites are chosen to demonstrate how these strategies can be applied to
site-specific design. Both sites share the idea of preserving and adapting
positive landscape features and restoring the natural process, achieving
minimal intervention.

A rise in the global mean temperature induced by climate change is expected to have a large impact on ecosystems in all regions of the world. One of the threats is accelerated sea level rise (SLR). This may induce the loss of intertidal areas in tidal inlet systems. The long-term morphological response of tidal inlet systems can be modelled using reduced complexity model ASMITA (Aggregated Scale Morphological Interaction between Tidal inlets and the Adjacent coast). The ASMITA model simulates morphological development on an aggregated spatial and temporal scale by imposing a morphological equilibrium condition. As such the model is fast, allowing for multiple long-term simulations. The model is physics-based and the parameters can be related to field values.

Currently, salt marshes are not implemented in ASMITA. However, salt marshes could be of importance to the morphological development in tidal inlet systems. Moreover, it is relevant to assess the resilience of the ecologically important salt marshes by themselves. The aim of this research is to implement salt marshes in ASMITA to assess their influence on the rest of the tidal inlet system and to gain insight into the long-term morphological response of salt marshes to accelerated SLR.

Salt marsh development is governed by horizontal and vertical processes. The marsh height increases by capturing mineral sediment and by the accumulation of plant biomass. Autocompaction and deep subsidence lead to a decrease in marsh height. The implementation of salt marshes in ASMITA relies solely on the input of mineral sediment. At the marsh edge, generally, a cyclic behaviour of sedimentation and cliff erosion occurs. Due to the high degree of spatial aggregation, cliff erosion is excluded from the model extension. The governing processes for salt marsh development in the ASMITA model extension are mineral sedimentation, sediment availability and relative SLR.

The spatial and temporal aggregation of governing processes for salt marsh development are included in the aggregated advection-diffusion equation and model parameters for the horizontal & vertical exchange of sediment, and sediment availability. Data analysis on hydrodynamic conditions and salt marsh development was conducted for the derivation and calibration of these model parameters. To verify the salt marsh implementation, three ASMITA models were created. A one-element salt marsh model consisting of only a salt marsh element, and two different multiple elements models, which contain the ebb-tidal delta, channels, tidal flats and salt marshes.

It can be concluded that ASMITA can model the mineral sedimentation on a salt marsh but depicts a large sensitivity to the parameter setting, particularly for the sediment concentration. Based on the chosen parameter configuration, the Oosterkwelder salt marsh is preserved when subjected to SLR rates below 16 mm/year.

The ASMITA salt marsh extension can be employed to obtain an expeditious first impression of long-term morphological salt marsh development. However, due to the lack of incorporation of detailed processes, the model should not be employed for in-depth analyses of salt marsh development. The interaction between the salt marsh element and the remaining tidal inlet system components requires further model improvements.

For the past 2000 years river training works have been performed on the Dutch rivers. These training works have shaped the river system of today. Another result of the river training works, especially over the last two centuries, is a decrease in biodiversity. To protect the biodiversity some floodplains in the Netherlands have been classified as Natura2000 areas. Construction works on these floodplains are not allowed, unless these measures are a last resort. Also, if this is the case, compensating measures have to be taken elsewhere.

Before 2050 about 1500 kilometres of dikes and 500 sluices and pumping stations need reinforcements. Dike reinforcements could be executed by only adding soil to the dike. Another option is to add structural elements to the dike. A soil-based approach is preferred because there is more experience and a higher level of security of the reliability for a soil-based structure.

One such soil-based approach is a longitudinal mound. A longitudinal mound is a body of soil which is parallel with the dike, with the goal to reduce the wave height at the dike itself. As a result of the wave height reduction the necessary dike crest level will be reduced as well. Therefore, a reinforcement of the dike itself is not needed. The crest of this longitudinal mound is lower than the crest height of the dike. The longitudinal mound will be submerged during design conditions and will act like a submerged wave breaker.

Costs, emissions and construction time could potentially be reduced by using local soil. This local soil can be obtained in two different ways. Firstly, it is possible to use the surplus of soil of another local project for the longitudinal mound. Secondly, the soil for the longitudinal mound could be taken from the floodplain itself.

However, only little is known about the hydrodynamic effects of a longitudinal mound on the floodplain. This thesis research is done to find possible locations for a longitudinal mound, the hydrodynamic effects and the differences between a simple and more complex model of the longitudinal mound. This is done with a multicriteria analysis for the location study and with a conceptual model and a 2D D-Flow FM model for the hydrodynamic effects.

In the multicriteria analysis the studied criteria are the size of the floodplain, structures on the floodplain and inside the dike, the availability of clay on the floodplain, the habitats on the floodplain and the wave height at the dike.

The multicriteria analysis has been performed from the point of view from multiple stakeholders. For all locations a compromise is necessary. Different locations for a longitudinal mound are preferred depending of the point of view of the stakeholders.

In the conceptual model three design parameters for the longitudinal mound are taken into account, the crest height, the crest width and the slope. For each combination of these three parameters the conceptual model calculates the new equilibrium water level and the transmitted wave height from the longitudinal mound towards the dike. The transmitted wave height is calculated with the best empirical fit on multiple datasets by Friebel and Harris in 2003.

With the Van der Meer overtopping formula the freeboard of the dike above the water level can be determined. This is done for the original situation without longitudinal mound and subsequently for the situation with all combinations of the longitudinal mound. From these calculations it can be concluded that the necessary dike crest height decreases when a longitudinal mound is present. However, more soil is needed than for a traditional dike reinforcement.

Also the conceptual model does not include a backwater effect. The water level does not immediately jump to the new equilibrium water level, so the water level increase should be smaller than calculated in the conceptual model. On the other hand, in the conceptual model all waves are assumed to be perpendicular to the dike. If waves are not perpendicular the necessary freeboard is smaller. The absolute dike crest height reduction with a longitudinal mound is therefore smaller for non-perpendicular waves than for perpendicular waves.

The 2D D-Flow FM model has been supplied by Deltares. The grid consists of cells of 20 by 10 square metres on the main river channel and 20 by 20 square metres on the floodplain. To model the longitudinal mound with a higher accuracy the grid on the floodplain has been refined to 5 by 5 square metres. On this refined grid three different variants have been modelled. All variants have a crest height of about half a metre below design water level and their alignment is identical. For Variant 2 a connection of half the longitudinal mound height has been made with the dike. For Variant 3 the same volume of soil needed for the longitudinal mound has been removed from the floodplain by lowering it by 0.3 metres.

There are only small differences between the three variants. Compared to the original situation there was only a difference in the order of millimetres of water level at the main river channel. The main differences are found between the dike and the longitudinal mound. In this area the Bernoulli effect is found, at locations of increased flow velocity lower water levels are found and vice versa. The subsequent difference in water level is about 5 to 10 centimetres.

The flow velocity depends on the difference of flow area in longitudinal direction between the longitudinal mound and the dike, following the Bernoulli principle. So, the main contributor to the water level change on the floodplain is the alignment of the longitudinal mound. Therefore, the alignment of the longitudinal mound is an important design parameter and can be used to find a trade-off between increased water levels and increased flow velocity.

As this process is not incorporated in the current version of the conceptual model the results between the conceptual model and the 2D D-Flow FM model are different. Therefore, it is recommended that the water levels between the longitudinal mound and dike are calculated separately in the conceptual model. To do this the area between the dike and longitudinal mound can be split into multiple segments. With energy and momentum balances the water levels in these segments can be calculated.

It is also recommended that the 2D D-Flow FM model is used at a smaller floodplain as well to see if the effect on the main river channel is similarly small. Next, it could be helpful to try different alignments for the longitudinal mound to see how these influence the water levels and flow velocities.

Finally, in this research only the flow has been modelled in 2D. However, the wave reduction is also of importance. The next step is to add a wave model to the 2D model to as well. With this addition it would be possible to make the comparison between the wave height reduction in the conceptual model relative to a 2D model as well as for the water level.