Innovatieve dijkconcepten: Waterveiligheidsopgave als katalysator voor innovatie in het Eems-Dollardgebied

There are currently several innovative dike concepts implemented along the Ems-Dollart estuary. This includes the Wide Green Dike and the Parallel Defense concepts. A Wide Green Dike has a grass covered mildly sloping seaward face. The clay needed for the Wide Green Dike is extracted from a clay pit in the adjacent salt marsh. The Parallel Defense concept consists of a system of a parallel dike landward of the existing seaward dike with a zone between these two dikes that is exposed to tidal impacts through a culvert. Both the Wide Green Dike and the Parallel Defense must comply with the strict Dutch safety standards. Although the Delta Program Wadden region played an important initiating role in the search for innovations, it was the Dutch Flood Protection Program that facilitated the exploration and implementation by providing funding. Furthermore, the co-benefits for other functions, alignment with the water quality policy, and collaboration with a range of stakeholders ensured that both pilots received additional funding and that legal hurdles were overcome. It is expected that in a changing climate with increasing sea-levels, the current pilots are gaining even more value, because of the developed knowledge and experience with adaptive and sustainable dike reinforcement.