Field visit in the Living Lab

The Flemish minister of Mobility and Public Works, Lydia Peeters, and the Dutch Delta Programme Commissioner, Peter Glas, visited the Living Lab Hedwige-Prosperpolder on Wednesday 2 March. Also a small group of representatives of the Flemish and Dutch Polder2C's partners were invited. They came to see several tests that were taking place this week in the Living Lab. 

Activities

There were several field activities taking place for the visitors to see:

• Breachdefender test - the Breachdefender is a pontoon, or floating bridge. It is being tested whether the pontoons can help close a breach or strengthen a weakened levee by anchoring them to the outer slope of a levee. This test is coordinated by the Dutch Ministry of Defense.

• Levee Guard training - this training is organised by the Dutch Water Boards and Rijkswaterstaat. In many cases levee guards are volunteers led by professionals.The levee guards usually notice any irregularities on and around the levee first. Central questions of the training are how can we guard the levee effectively in case of high water and what techniques can we use?

• Lime in clay wave overtopping test - The central question is whether clay becomes erosion resistant by adding lime to it. Involved in this experiment are Waterschap Limburg, Hoogwaterbeschermingsprogramma (HWBP) Rijkswaterstaat en LHoist. In December a part of the levee was prepared with a top layer of clay and lime. After a couple of months of resting it is time to test how the top layer holds with wave overtopping. 

Focus on data analysis

These research activities will be finalised in the beginning of March. After all the field activities that have been done in our Living Lab since 2020, the participating partners will now focus on the analysis of all the gathered data. More information on the results will be shared later.