Veessen-Wapenveld Channel: Scale Model Tests Underway

July 18, 2014

To protect Deventer, Zutphen and the villages on the IJssel River from extreme high water and flooding, an eight-kilometre-long channel is being created between Veessen and Wapenveld.

Work will start after the summer on the channel, which can take a maximum of 45% of the water from the IJssel.

Scale model tests are currently underway at Deltares on an important component of the high-water channel: the inlet, in other words, the dike the water passes over when it enters the channel.

Precise picture of the flow rate of the water

Project manager Judith van Os from Deltares said: “The scale model study can be used to simulate in detail structures in the channel such as the dike and the bridge piers. This gives us a more precise idea than computer models of how much water can actually enter the channel and how fast it flows.”

The scale model

The actual channel will be eight kilometres long and between 500 and 1500 metres wide; the inlet will be 800 metres long. The scale test involves building a section of the inlet to a scale of 1:10. The model makes it possible to see how the inlet actually works and what is needed to ensure that incoming water from the IJssel doesn’t cause damage.

Veessen-Wapenveld high-water channel

Between Veessen and Wapenveld (in the municipality of Heerde), work will start after the summer on a high-water channel between two new dikes. A meadow area without any buildings will be created to the east of the existing dike, serving as a channel for water when water levels are extremely high.

Opening the channel will reduce the level of water in the IJssel River by 71 centimetres. This is expected to happen once in a lifetime on average. The agricultural nature of the area will be preserved. For safety reasons, no homes or business accommodation will be left between the two dikes.

The channel will be completed in late 2016 and it will be a part of Rijkswaterstaat’s national flood protection programme, Room for the River.

[mappress]

Press Release, July 18, 2014