Advancing sustainable methods for shoreline maintenance by Boskalis

Boskalis is part of a joint initiative to advance sustainable methods for shoreline maintenance along the Dutch coast.

The project – which is in partnership with Rijkswaterstaat (the executive agency of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management), Vereniging van Waterbouwers, Deltares, Delft Technical University and the EcoShape foundation – focuses on developing carbon-neutral practices and equipment as well as the reduction of ecological impacts attributed to sand extraction and replenishment.

The research forms an important part of helping Rijkswaterstaat to realize its ambition of making beach replenishment activities in the Netherlands carbon-neutral by 2030.

The project, which got underway in 2021, focuses initially on the IJmuiden-Texel section of the Netherlands’ coastline and seeks to draw on interdisciplinary partnerships to bring together relevant technological knowledge, policy and regulation, and commercial experience.

With a firm eye on the impact of climate change and potentially significant sea level rises in years to come, the emphasis is on the ability to scale up the resulting approaches to tackle more significant coastal maintenance needs in the future, both in the Netherlands and abroad.

“As well as through advances in technology, we aim to reduce emissions and ecological impacts through the integration of different stages of coastal maintenance and exploring alternative maintenance strategies,” said Thomas Vijverberg, Deputy Manager Hydronamic and part of the Dutch Coastline Challenge team.

“The Netherlands focus provides a ‘living lab’ for sustainable and scalable coastal maintenance techniques which can then be expanded and deployed internationally.”

The project is expected to deliver its conclusions in early 2023.