To prepare the 2 Seas Region for the emerging trend in Climate Change
Countries in the 2 Seas area (Belgium, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and France) are experiencing more impactful and extreme changes due to climate change. Together they are pro-actively preparing for challenges brought forth by this factor. The Polder2C's project gives opportunity to look at potential impacts of flooding and plan on a strategic, tactical and operational level for these effects. In order to do this the stakeholders need to know how strong the flood defenses are and how well the currently organized emergency response is organized in practice. This also gives opportunity to raise flood awareness among the general public and stakeholders for the possible impact of floods. Up until now these aspects have only been recreated in theoretical models.
The depoldering of the Hedwige- and Prosperpolder offers an unique living lab situation on which different tests can be performed to validate current flood defense strategies and emergency response. The aim of the project is to help the participating countries adapt to climate change through increased flood resilience and better emergency response, based on the outcome of test done in the Dutch and Belgium polder areas. To support the development of new strategies and organizational and operational plans through:
- Improving practical knowledge by testing, validating and demonstrating flood defense infrastructure and emergency response techniques and methods.
- Educating and training young water professionals
- Offer a platform for knowledge and espertise exchange
- Improving collaboration between relevant stakeholders
- Exploiting the unique opportunity the Hedwige/Prosper polder poses maximally by performing a large amount of tests focused on filling in a gap of knowledge on flood defense strategies
Research type: field research, desk analysis, lab research
Location: Hedwige- and Prosperpolder, the Netherlands and Belgium
Contact: Wietse van de Lageweg
