Deltares to Serve on Committee of US National Research Council

Ap van Dongeren, expert coastal management at Deltares has been invited by the U.S. National Research Council of the National Academies, and has accepted, to serve on a committee to provide advice to the sponsor, the US Corps of Engineers, on Coastal Risk Reduction issues.

Dr Van Dongeren is the only non-US member on this committee and therefore his position is not only honourable but also unique.

Expertise

Dr Van Dongeren will draw on his experiences of coastal risk management in the Netherlands as well as in the US. He has been involved in projects for the Office of Naval Research in the US for several years now. He is the Coordinator on the EU-FP7 project RISC-KIT on European Coastal Risk Reduction and Program Leader of “Event-driven hydro- and morphodynamics” in the Flood Safety theme at Deltares.

Advise

The committee on Coastal Risk Reduction Issues will engage invited speakers from other federal agencies, U.S. congressional staff, state governments, the private sector, and relevant stakeholders. The committee’s final report will focus on reducing flood risks from coastal storm surges and will address the following questions:

1. What coastal risk-reduction strategies have been used along the U.S. East and Gulf associated with storm surges, and what design standards or levels of protection have been used?

2. What are the regional and national implications of expanding the extent and levels of coastal storm surge protection?

3. How might risk-related principles contribute to the development of design standards for coastal risk-reduction projects? How might risk-related principles increase the ability of coastal regions and communities to prepare for coastal storms and surge, and adjust to changing coastal dynamics, such as prospects of sea level rise?

4. What general principles might be used to guide future investments in U.S. coastal risk reduction?

Final report

The first meeting is scheduled for August 26 and 27 in Washington. The final report is due in June 2014.

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Press Release, July 18, 2013