14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers say that existing or planned infrastructure, such as buildings, roads and so on, could be successfully used to produce meaningful defense barriers that would protect people against flooding.
The new work shows that roads, for instance, could represent a highly-efficient barrier in the path of raging waters, if they are built on slightly higher elevations than they are today.
In other words, if their foundation is made taller, then they could stop incoming water more efficiently. In addition to its regular function, the roads, buildings or car parks designed in this manner could also play a defense role in protecting communities.
The new concept was refined by Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) researcher and PhD candidate Bianca Stalenberg, who will argue her point at the university, on September 8.
The expert believes that such an approach could be especially useful in the Netherlands and in Holland, countries that have large swaths of land situated below sea level, and which are prone to floods.
If levees and dams here break, then the consequences would be catastrophic. Unlike other parts of the world, the water will not recede, given that the land is below sea level.
Over the next few years, flood risks will continue to increase, given the rising influence of climate change and global warming. These two phenomena will cause average sea levels to rise.
This means that the levees themselves will need to be made taller and stronger, experts say. They draw attention to the fact that riverfront properties currently go unregulated, in the sense that public interest does not dictate how they are used.
City planners and private individuals get to dictate how these properties are used, regardless of the fact that these buildings and other infrastructure represents the first line of deafens when floods strike.
Properties along the River Rhine are especially targeted by the new research. Experts say that these areas need immediate improvements in terms of flood protection systems.
“Unfortunately, this makes improving flood protection and redeveloping urban riverfronts very complicated. My research poses the question of whether it is possible to combine the urban functions of buildings with that of flood protection,” says Stalenberg.
She says that, with the aid of the AFD (Adaptable Flood Defenses) concept, this is possible. The scientist says that riverfront properties can be constructed in such a manner that they protect the land behind them.
The expert also developed a decision-support model, the Urban Flood Protection Matrix (UFPM), which can be used by municipal governments and other authorities to improve urban flood defense systems.