Profile

Deltares: almost a century of experience in a young instituteOn 1 January 2008, four Dutch partners brought together their expertise and experience. GeoDelft, WL | Delft Hydraulics, the Bussiness Unit Soil and Groundwater of TNO and parts of Rijkswaterstaat teamed up as Deltares.

Deltares

• employs900waterandsubsurfaceexperts• isanon-profitorganisation with an annual turnover of €100 million• has75%ofitsworkinEurope,and25%elsewhere in the world

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Enabling Delta Life

[Ameland, Netherlands]

Deltares is a leading research institute for water and sub- surface issues with its base in the Netherlands. Throughout the world, our advanced expertise enables safe, clean and sustainable living in deltas, coastal areas and river basins. With this goal in mind, we develop knowledge, innovative products and services, pool our knowledge with others, and make the results available. We advise governments and the private sector, and use our expertise to make sound and independent assessments of the physical condition of deltas, coastal areas and river basins.

This range of roles can be seen in our work throughout the world. Our consultancy work picks up where others leave off, often in the exploratory stages of a project, with independent advice using the latest advances. We extend our knowledge base in government research programmes and contract research for contractors and the engineering sector, teaming up with universities and other research institutions along the way. In the process, we encourage innovations, and speed up the pathway making new advances available for application in practice.

To live and work comfortably and safely in the narrow confines of coastal areas and river basins, local residents need smart approaches to the subsurface and the water systems. Deltares supplies answers to social issues by combining technical expertise with an understanding of political, administrative and economic processes. This inter-disciplinary approach, our independent position, and our role as an authority with a reputation for integrity mean we can get pro-actively involved in public debate, implementing our strategic principle: ‘Enabling Delta Life’.

Water and the subsurface involve not only technological issues, but also natural processes, spatial planning and admini- strative and legal processes. We apply our understanding of those processes in an integrated way, improving the quality of life in deltas, coastal areas and river basins. The integrated approach allows us to come up with innovative solutions. In the Netherlands, it is known as ‘delta technology’.

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Policy and PlanningDeltares supplies the understanding of water and the subsurface that government authorities need to make policy and plans for issues such as area development, innovation management and water safety. In that way, Deltares supports the development of new policy, the analysis and evaluation of existing policy, and the estab-lishment of visions for the future. So we conduct strategic reviews, scenario studies and integrated studies, both in the Netherlands and on the international stage.

We explore and identify future threats to society so that we can decide on the knowledge, innovative products and services that will be required to face those challenges. Our expertise and experience can be used to their full potential in the exploratory phase of studies and projects: during the definitionoftheproblemandtheinvestigationofpoten-tial solutions. Together with our clients and other research institutes, we work on the major challenges for the future: the design and management of sustainable deltas, coastal areas and river basins that can cope with the demands of theclimate.InEurope,spatialplanningdependsincreas-ingly upon water and the subsurface. Elsewhere in theworld, Deltares can draw on this knowledge and experi-ence, helping to design more sustainable living environ-ments with better defences against the climate.

Coast and SeaBy understanding how coasts and seas work as a system, we can make the most of natural processes in planning and management. This means building with nature, sustain-able hydraulic engineering projects in coastal areas and smart coastal maintenance making the most of natural forces.Deltaresexpertiseabouttheeffectofweathercon- ditions on natural processes, coastal defences and hydraulic engineering ranges from everyday conditions to extreme events like storm tides, tsunamis and hurricanes.

Deltares supports policy and management for coastal zones (for example with Integrated Coastal Zone Manage-ment). The areas we work in cover climate change or the impact of measures for protecting water and ground quality. We have integrated our knowledge of ecosystems

inmodelsthatareusedtoimplementEuropeaninitiativessuch as the Water and Marine Strategy Framework Direc-tives. We also help government authorities tackle pollution and disaster management more effectively. We develop prediction systems for early warnings and to advise on public works.

The potential of the physical system has to be managed so that large numbers of people can live and work close to the sea without too much impact on natural processes. Deltares provides consultancy services for hydraulic engineering projects that make this possible. We work on coastal protection, recreation, energy supplies and transportation infrastructure.

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[Coral Reef, Red Sea]

[Foreshore replenishment]

Rivers, Lakes and GroundwaterThis is another area where an understanding of how the system operates is crucial. It is at the heart of our consul-tancy activities and also, for example, our models for predicting river levels, and the flow patterns and quality of groundwater and surface water. Our core expertise is technical knowledge in the areas of hydrology, geology, morphology and hydraulic engineering. In all the areas where Deltares is active, we supplement this technical knowledge with information about ecology and economics, safeguarding the social relevance of our consultancy work.

Using Integrated Water Resources Management, Deltares supports public policy and management for fresh water. Water bodies in the subsurface and surface water are

completely interdependent in terms of quality and quan-tity. So we link up models for groundwater and surface water for large areas.

Local residents not only need protection against the water in lakes and rivers, they also need access to that water. Deltares provides advice about how to safeguard security and to use water for shipping, as a source of drinking water, irrigation water and cooling water, for generating energy and for protecting nature. We are also active in areas where the link with water is not immediately apparent: energy recovery by means of heat and cold in the subsur-face is a good example. So a sound understanding of the interaction between groundwater and surface water can actually drive innovation.

Soil and the Subsurface The ground beneath our feet is more than just the surface on which we live, build and work. It is the source of raw materials such as sand, gravel and clay. We use space below the ground so that we can house more functions in a smallarea.Thesubsurfaceisanutrient-richenvironmentfor plants; it contains groundwater that is important for us and for nature, and that interacts with the water in lakes, rivers and streams. It is the strength of Deltares that we have the expertise covering all these different aspects of soil and the subsurface.

The combination of different disciplines brings together, for example, information about the geological structure of thesubsurfaceandtechnologicalknow-howintheareas

of dredging and sand production. An understanding of groundwaterinurbanareascanalsobeusedincombin- ation with information about how ground behaves for civil engineering projects and infrastructure. Our expertise in geo-engineeringandfoundationsarevitaltotheexecutionof these projects in soft ground and to the management of theassociatedrisks.Economicactivityhasresultedinthepollution of the subsurface in many places in the world. Deltares advises about the most efficient soil decon- tamination approach based on local conditions and the continuity of production processes. We are present where innovations are needed to live and work in a clean and safe environment.

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[Sheet piling]

[Biesbosch, Netherlands]

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[DubaiCreek,UnitedArabEmirates]

Deltares software passes on the latest advances in the area of water and the subsurface to users, often in collaboration with our knowledge partners and users. Its application is constantly generating new research questions and new insights. The result is a continuous cycle of application and development, enhancing our expertise and the software. We aim to provide open architecture that makes combinations with third-party software possible.

Integrating the software enhances the range of application options open to users. An example is the management of flood risks: integrating the software for high water predic-tions, for modelling floods when dikes collapse, and for the effects of interventions such as evacuation is a way of improving support for decision-making when there is a threat of flooding.

Some of our software is marketed under the Deltares Systems brand in more than 60 countries. This covers the full range of Deltares operations, from applications for coastal waters and estuaries (Delft3D), rivers and urban water management (SOBEK) to applications for designing sheet piling structures (MSheet) and testing the stability of water defences (MStab).

Pearl River System, China

[Deltares researchers]

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In the Netherlands, Deltares conducts experiments in its own facilities for water and soil research (including an environ- mental laboratory, the large-scale Delta flume and Geo- Centrifuge). The results of these experiments allow us to validate our models and to test, for example, the optimal design for infrastructure and biochemical concepts for reinforcing the subsurface. Our facilities are also open to European researchers.

The range of complementary facilities demonstrates how our research addresses all the facets of the behaviour of the subsurface and water. We study the quality of water and the morphology of rivers, lakes and the coast. We also study the strength of the ground and the subsurface, the effects of wave loads and currents on structures and the stability of those structures. Various physical processes often meet in a single experiment, for example the size of the wave load on a dike and the strength of that dike in terms of soil mechanics. The combination of our facilities means we can engage in small- and large-scale research in preparation for the responsible application of our knowledge in practice, as in the construc-tion of flood defences, building foundations, or changing soil properties using bacteria.

[tunnel boring machine]

[large-scalewaveresearchfacility]

December 2008

PO Box 1772600 MH DelftThe NetherlandsT +31 (0)88-DELTARES (335 82 73)info@deltares.nlwww.deltares.nl