Greening the dike revetment with historic sod transplantation technique in a living lab

Kim van den Hoven*, Carla J. Grashof-Bokdam, Pieter A. Slim, Ludolph Wentholt, Patrik Peeters, Davy Depreiter, André R. Koelewijn, Marte M. Stoorvogel, Mario van den Berg, Carolien Kroeze, Jantsje M. van Loon-Steensma

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Coastal flood managers seek to anticipate future flood risk and as a result consider the adaptation of flood defences. Instead of crest heightening, dikes can be adapted to include hydrodynamic reducing vegetated foreshores to form a nature-based hybrid flood defence, for instance; at managed realignments. In this study we investigated the potential of vegetated revetments as a natural continuous connection between the realigned dike and restored foreshore. We applied the historic grass sod transplantation technique with the aim to improve our understanding of the strength of a transplanted sod revetment. In Living Lab Hedwige-Prosperpolder, dikes were available for in-situ experiments during managed realignment preparations. We transplanted grass sods and studied erosion resistance after one growth season. Our results show transplanted sod vegetation continued to grow and started to attach to the clay layer. While erosion occurred under extreme wave impact and overflow, the sod pulling method revealed individual sod strength. In conclusion, sod transplantation is a good technique to source local material for green realigned dike revetments. A vegetated dike revetment can hereby create a natural continuous connection between the realigned dike and foreshore, which benefits flood protection as well as flora and fauna.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere12968
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Flood Risk Management
Volume17
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • hybrid flood defence
  • in-situ experiment
  • living lab Hedwige-Prosperpolder
  • managed realignment
  • nature-based flood protection
  • realigned dike
  • sod transplantation
  • vegetated dike revetment

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