Goals and locations

River managers have to discuss plans and make trade-offs between for example flood safety, ecology and costs. How can we make sure that the different needs are taken into account while restoring the natural river processes?

RiverCare works with multiple parties such as the government, consultancies and stakeholder organizations on monitoring the consequences of recent interventions on the river system, but also works towards providing this knowledge to the decision-makers and practitioners for the development of more sustainable practices.

Floodplains are essential for rivers to prevent flooding of protected areas – i.e. inhabited areas behind the dikes – in case of high river discharges. However, this is only one of the functions of the floodplains. They are also important for ecology conservation and providing services to society. In ‘the floodplains’, RiverCare researchers look at and monitor how floodplains along river interventions, such as side-channels and longitudinal training dams, develop through the perspectives of morphology and ecology.

Like many rivers around the world, Dutch rivers are intensively managed. Computer models are used to assist in the design and maintenance of the river system. In order to improve these models, the RiverCare researchers use parts of the river as an experimental set up. We reproduce into simple and sophisticated models the effects of river interventions on for example the water level, the river bed and the floodplain vegetation to estimate the model uncertainties and evolution over time.

The RiverCare research programme focused on generating knowledge to further improve river management. Twenty two researchers have worked for over four years on different subjects in and around the Dutch rivers. Now the time has come to share their knowledge to make impact on the society, to support discussions between stakeholders while making our research accessible to project managers and advisors in The Netherlands and around the world.