Watervast is a price winning concept for the competition ‘Mounts made out of Sediments’ organized by Rijkswaterstaat for the WINN programme.

Watervast is a concept to reduce the social and economic risks of flooding during high water levels of the rivers Rhine and Meuse. At the same time, this concept will allow new developments that reinforce the landscape. We will make use of the tremendous amount of sediment that is released with the project 'Space fro the River'. For this amount of sediment, a destination still has to be found.

In case of a calamity, the area between the rivers will be flooded much slower when compartment dikes are constructed. These dikes are made of the sediment from the floodplains near the rivers and sediment from local ditches. This is an important contribution to the safety in the area. Local governments and citizens can design the dikes according to their own wishes. The involvement of citizens is important to make people aware that they live in an area that can be flooded.

Watervast is a concept that will be put into practice little by little. It will be carried out together with the ‘Space for the River’ project. Up to 2050, a resilient system will unfold, adapted to topical subjects and local needs. Because properties of different types of sediment are used within Watervast, the sediment problem will become easier to solve. Essence of our idea is to use the sediment locally as much as possible. This is also the easiest solution and it keeps the costs at a low level. Probably hardly any extra costs above the cost of the ‘Space for the River’ project will have to be made.

Watervast is an initiative by:
Alterra Wageningen
Dura Vermeer
Robbert de Koning Landschapsarchitecten BNT
DIN_arch


Further information
For further information on this project or Dura Vermeer:
Mariska Mörs
m.mors@duravermeer.nl
+31 (0)23 752 84 11