The Netherlands: Deltares’ Project Finalist for Franz Edelman Award

The project ‘Economically Efficient Flood Standards to Protect the Netherlands against Flooding’ has been chosen as one of the final six contenders for the prestigious Franz Edelman Award. The project was carried out for the Delta Programme by a consortium led by Deltares.

Deltares performed the analyses for the project and wrote the final rapport Maatschappelijke kosten-batenanalyse 21e eeuw (Social cost-benefit analysis for the 21st century). The theory, the mathematical model and the software were commissioned by Deltares, who also cooperated with their development, alongside CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Tilburg University, TU Delft and HKV consultants.

In the course of the project a new calculation method was developed and used to calculate the optimum economic standards for protecting the Netherlands against flooding. Using these calculations can save billions of euros in water safety expenditure. This calculation method can also be used in other countries to determine optimum standards for flood protetection.

The Franz Edelman Award is awarded annually by the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS®), an international professional society with several Nobel Prize winners among its members. INFORMS uses this award to draw attention to Operations Research, in which mathematical techniques and models are used to improve or optimise processes within organisations. Projects nominated for the Award must have a significant impact on society, industry or business.

The project ‘Economically Efficient Flood Standards to Protect the Netherlands against Flooding’ was put forward for the Franz Edelman Award by the Delta Programme Commissioner. The other finalists are Boasteel, Chevron, Dell, Kroger and McKesson. They will be battling it out for first place in San Antonio, Texas, on 8 April.

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Press Release, February 20, 2013