‘Building with nature’: the new Dutch approach to coastal and river works

Abstract

The Netherlands has adopted a new, proactive approach to developing its extensive coastal and river works called ‘building with nature’. Rather than simply minimising or mitigating the environmental impact of harbours, navigation channels, land reclamation and flood defences, the idea is to make use of the dynamics of the natural environment and provide opportunities for natural processes. Existing concepts and ideas have been further developed and tested in a number of full-scale pilot experiments, including sand engines, oyster reefs and waveattenuating forests. This paper describes a number of these experiments along with the preliminary results and lessons learned.